When David and I got married, we knew we wanted kids. We were blessed with Emily and Ben right away. I always fantasized about how my kids would be. They'd have David's great smile. His ability to write well. My love of numbers. Davids legs. My boobs (Emily at least). My sense of humor; hence the previous comment. They'd be these wonderfully perfect little people. What I didn't fantasize about was the flaws within myself that I'd pass on to my children. I've never been a breezy, fly by the seat of my pants kind of person. I'd LOVE to be and I admire people who can be like that. I'm overly structured and organized. I'm always 5 minutes early. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I'm impatient. Since having kids, I've learned that some of these things can be a positive and negative. But one of my biggest flaws, which I can clearly see that my kids are developing, is my lack of patience.
We live in a world of instant gratification. Ben wanted to watch a particular episode of The Backyardigans this morning. I told him that we didn't have that episode Tivo'd. He'd have to watch a different episode. He had a fit. I asked him, "What do you want me to do? Wiggle my nose and blink my eyes and your show will appear." To which he replied a very simple "yes". Like it's that easy. In reality though, that's how things are. We were watching Charlotte's Web not long ago and they liked the song from Sarah MacLachlan called "Ordinary Miracle". I liked it too. So, we went to the computer, charged the 99 cents from I-tunes on our credit card and we had it for our drive to school the next day. I had to scold Emily again today for picking a tomato off the vine while it was still green. Her rebuttal was, "I want it to be red now!" I take a picture or video and they want to see it right away. What happened to waiting a month until the film got developed? Emily didn't even know what a commercial was until a few months ago. We really only watch shows that are Tivo'd, so she had never seen a commercial. They made quite an impression on her when she told me the next day that "Commercials stink." That's my girl. I couldn't agree more.
So, what do I do? Chuck it all and live like a Quaker? No way. Hopefully, if I instill enough good qualities it will surpass the few negatives that may creep up. After all, nobody is perfect, not even my precious little monsters.
1 comment:
It's something that you wrote this right now, as you had no idea of my next month's column... just wait until you read it. I think we're on the same wavelength at times. ;-)
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