Perspective

It’s another sleep deprived morning.  I am still not used to the early morning wake up call to get my ninth grader to the bus leaving the house at an ungodly hour.  It’s only week three,  I’m still hoping for a carpool or just maybe, I can get used to this routine…we’ll see….I can’t complain to my daughter who feels her job as a student is far tougher than my cushy job “playing” with kids all day as a therapist.  Maybe she’s right.  I do have probably the best job in the world.  But, we can talk therapy on another  day.

Today I am thinking about perspective.  What do we really want for our kids?  Raising toddlers and preschoolers is one thing, but having a teen never ceases to be a humbling experience.  This teen stuff is completely uncharted territory for me.  As parents of young children we focus so much on the skills our children need to succeed in school.  Parents of teens still care about school success, but the stakes keep getting higher as we try to guide them for success in life.  Did I say guide?  That term may be a stretch, because teens don’t really like to be guided, because after all they know better.  At least I think this is true, it couldn’t just be me, could it?  Make that self-doubt with a little paranoia thrown in…

So, I worry.  Not really for any good reason.  But, because that is something I am really good at.

And, then a baby comes over the house for a visit.  My daughter goes over to the baby and is just so sweet with her.  That’s the daughter I know, sweet and loving.  The baby proves that sweetness and loving is still there.

And then, never being one to not have a sense of humor, she says to me, repeating a website she had recently seen:

“No Matter how old your are, no matter how badass you are, if a toddler hands you their ringing toy phone, you answer it”.

Yup, that’s what it’s about.