Parents

I don't understand parents. I am one, and I understand me as much as I can. I don't understand MY parents. They are nuts.

My mom and I talk almost every day. She calls and then I call her back on my mobile with free long distance so she doesn't have a giant phone bill. But when we are in the same room, we are on edge. But I touched on that in a previous post.

My dad... Where to start? He was a complete workaholic when I was growing up. Rarely saw him. It was an every-other-weekend divorced dad thing. But he worked all day on Saturdays. Keep in mind, he was a white collar worker, no set hours, and he was pretty high up, so it wasn't like he was trying to impress. That was just how he was. He made very good money, but was tight with it. He never took us on trips or family vacations. His idea of vacation was taking us to Oklahoma to stay at our grandparents' house for a month in the summer. (His month per the divorce settlement.) Anyway, when I was in high school, he remarried and retired. At this point, I lived with him. So I went to school all day, worked from 3-11ish, then came home and did homework. I was 17 and the only person actually working.

Well, not sure how she did it, but his wife has been able to get him to loosen his grip on the almighty dollar. They take cruises, and travel internationally, and buy new cars all the time, and new furniture, and take little weekend trips to cute towns, and basically buy whatever they want.

And part of me is pissed. Why didn't he want to spend any of that on me? Or my brother? And now, my kids? We go visit once a year or so. He pays for meals and slips me some "travel" money, but it doesn't' feel the same.

Now that I have my own kids, I can't imagine not giving them certain things. Like the memories that come from taking a vacation together. We are not a rich family, maybe our vacation this year is a night at the Great Wolf Lodge which is just on the other side of town. But it's an event. It's fun, it's family, it's life.

I dream of taking everyone to Disney World. That's the ultimate kid destination. But for now, we'll settle for Worlds of Fun.

At least we are together. And having a blast.

That's how I want my family to be... though I am sure when they are my age, they too will not understand their parents.

Holy crap!

I don't even know if anyone checks this anymore. It's been like 17 years since my last post. OK, not really, but might as well have been.

I had the baby... he's a boy. I think we are going to keep him. Though he did have surgery when he was 19 days old. That pissed me off. Well, scared me mostly. But he's fine now. Almost 3 months old. That's nuts.

I'm sure everyone that might actually read this already knows that info.

I love my kids. I get annoyed with them, don't get me wrong, but I love them. A lot. More than can even fit in my oddly shaped body. Sometimes it almost hurts, literally. And sometimes it makes me cry.

My oldest is an amazing little girl. And she's had to be on the back burner since her two brothers have been around. But she doesn't care generally. She helps me. All the time. She'll get a diaper or fix a snack. She'll keep her eyes on one while I tend to the other. She plays. With all her heart. She gets frustrated, don't we all? But 99 times out a hundred, there's no question that she's loving every minute of it. Yes, I get the eye roll or the "But I was just getting ready to...." But she comes through like a champ.

I love my kids.