Circleoflife

Is
it just me or do the young folks of today seem to be
starting their families a lot later in life? I was married
at twenty-one and we had our first child a couple of years
later.



Looks to me as if families are getting started when the
parents are in their late thirties or even their forties. My
oldest son and his wife have been married for sixteen years
and are starting off with their first child as of next
March. Since he is forty, this means he’ll be close to my
current age when his kid gets into college. I cannot imagine
having a newborn at forty. T-ball and Little League at
fifty? High school proms and driving lessons at close to
sixty? That’s if this one is boy. If it’s a girl, then he
has to put up with the rigors of who she dates when he gets
to my current age. Not something I’d want to do. My heart
would give out. Babies are a lot of work and require youth,
stamina and lots of patience and determination. These are
not traits generally found in older folks. We’ve been there
and done that and most of us don’t want to do it again. We
don’t need no stinking tee shirt.



My wife and I are looking forward to a new grandchild. You
get all of the good and none of the bad and then can send
them home after you’ve spoiled them rotten. You are spared
the terrors of homework and peer pressure but allowed to
have the joys of seeing these little humans grow up and
become stars in your universe. My son and daughter in law
think their lives are not really going to change that much
after the baby is born.



Do I have news for them.



Think back to the days before you had kids, no better than
that look at all of the movies having love stories located
in Paris or Rome…. do they have little kids in them? Not
hardly. You couldn’t carry that much stuff around with you.
You’d need a truck or minivan… which is why I suppose we see
so many of them out on the road today. For kids these days,
you need strollers, diaper bags, bottle warmers, thousands
of diapers, car seats, things for them to sit in when you
are in some restaurant, clothing changes, toys, bottles….
and lord knows what else that I’ve forgotten. When we had
our babies, you needed some diapers and a bottle…. not much
else. Life was somewhat easier.



My youngest son just bought a puppy…first one he’s ever had
of his own as an adult. Ask him if responsibility has
changed his life. He is gaining a greater respect for my
wife and I each day that passes. He says his life is now in
three-hour segments. The dog is really calm and very good
despite being so young, but she needs to be fed, walked and
fooled with nearly every hour of the day. We have broken
down and taken her off his hands on a couple of occasions
just to give him a break. His eyes thank us for this. We
tell him that dogs are easier than kids since you can put
them in the kennel from time to time and go off on a trip….
you can’t do that with your kids, the vet won’t take them.




Kids are a challenge for anyone. Just ask someone who has
had some. Just because they grow up doesn’t mean they go
away. Not that you’d want them to do so even if you had the
choice. No, my kids will do fine with their new baby.
They’ll listen to me tell them what to do and then they’ll
do what they want to no matter what I say. They have to
learn how to raise their own one experience at a time. I
can’t do it for them any more than my parents could do it
for me.



We all wish we could save our kids some grief by the value
of our experiences, but the reality is they have to learn on
their own no matter what we have to say about it.



The circle of life just keeps on turning.