021616

Most of us seem to live our life’s in bullet points.  We all need to slow down at times and write the story out.  Life is too fast.  We get caught up in our daily routines and the days and weeks soar by.  I think that the best part of becoming a grandparent is that you have an appreciation of how fast the years flew by when we were raising our own kids.  With grandchildren you know the importance of sharing time with these little girls and boys. 

When my kids were young, my mom played a huge role in each of their life’s.  I hate dentists.  My mom was the dentist appointment person.  She would take them to their appointments and then take them to lunch.  This gave her a chance to chat with them. Laugh with them and hopefully enjoy them. 

I always say that when Bruce and I were young and raising our kids, we were caught up in daily life. Working, cleaning, cooking, raising kids and all of the normal stuff.  When my oldest son was about to graduate, I remember walking into the kitchen and seeing his cap and gown on the table.  I looked at it and asked myself who told him he could grow up and when did it happen.  I was sure I was holding his hand to cross the street not long before.  For a while I was sure that I felt this way because I was young.  I assumed that every other parent was excited that the kids were ready to leave the house and be on their own.  I certainly wasn’t jumping on that band wagon.  I wanted to freeze time.  I wanted to have my kids at home with me and all of their friends coming and going. 

Well, at the end of the day, we all know that freezing time wasn’t going to happen.  Time was going to march forward and my kids, one at a time, were going to graduate and move on with their life’s, just as everyone does.  I will never say that I liked it.  I hated every step of the way.

Maybe I identified myself as nothing more than my kid’s mom.  Maybe that is true.  Truth be told, I would say that I loved my kids as babies, until they were toddlers, then that was my favorite time with them, until they moved onto school aged. Then that was my favorite. You all get the point.  Finally, it occurred to me that I raised these people to be people I liked.  I did that! 

My original point was that we live in bullet points.  We all have to stop and write the story now and again.  We don’t want to reach a point that we look back and have nothing to sit back and smile about because we were too busy to absorb life and family and friends and experiences. 

I guess in our parent’s, grandparent’s, and even some of our own childhoods, life and times were easier and people weren’t as absorbed in social media and the luxuries of life as we know it now.   Families ate together, sat and chatted.  So maybe this rant didn’t apply to the past generations.  It’s sad though.  Our histories are being sacrificed by video games and such a quick paced life. 

Maybe we need to figure out how to slow down and sit around the table and talk to our kids…….