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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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Parenthood has taught me many lessons-from the first ones that were thrust upon me during the early days of my babies’ infancy to the more gracefully learned ones through their elementary years. Some lessons were one time affairs, while others are tried and true, used over and over, from one child to the next. I could fill books with these little ideas, notions and knowledge, but most of it is tucked away in the recesses of my brain, ready to be shared if asked upon.
If you asked today, I would say, the greatest lesson I have learned is this-always expect the unexpected.
This doesn’t mean the time when your toddler daughter (Grace) pulls a very full pitcher of iced tea out of the fridge onto the floor. It isn’t even when you wake up in the middle of the night and find that your oldest daughter (Taylor) has smeared diaper rash ointment all over herself, her baby sister and well, pretty much any surface she could reach.
The unexpected could be walking outside and catching your son, who will remain un-named, joining the rest of the potty-training neighborhood in showing the world that they no longer wear diapers, but really, this rule is so much more than that. Even the multitude of emergency rooms visits for the youngest, who still to this day remains fearless, doesn’t scratch the surface of the unexpected.
No, the unexpected is watching my oldest embrace the language of Spanish, giving up four years of her life to immerse her body and soul into it so she can teach it when college ends and her working life begins. It is the transformation of a timid, but eager-to-learn toddler to an open-minded and independent young woman.
Had I stuck with my expectations of my younger daughter, I would not be watching her play first chair in her band section, watch her pour hours into her artwork and write fabulous reports about the Japanese internment camps during World War II, with hours spent researching and talking to people who lived a portion of their lives there. Perhaps I wouldn’t be sharing raspberry sherbet on a Friday night with her.
My youngest son has surpassed all of my wildest expectations, singing and dancing in a choir with quite a bit of flair. He tries to solemnly serve at church as an altar server, but is never able to do it without sneaking in one of those wide, signature grins of his, more like two or three. We almost never leave church without a compliment about his cuteness from a parishioner or two. He might not like to read, but give him a map and he will tell you exactly where he wants to go.
Then there is my oldest boy, my most serious child, the one that has surpassed anything I could have expected. From listening to him perform in various choirs and school musicals to watching him in his most recent forensics meet, where he gave an awesome rendition of a speech that matched him to a tee. Part of an undefeated scholar bowl, this was more the path I saw him taking, but the flair of an actor, singer and performer, I never saw that coming-yet I love it.
For every single one of them there is more, but that makes me a bragging parent instead of a telling one. The unexpected doesn’t even stop with them, because it started with me, and had I stalled at what I thought my life would be like, there would be no lessons in child-rearing, not a single one.
It isn’t over, life still goes on and lessons will keep coming at me. They will continue to be tucked away in my mind, to be called upon by my children as they (fingers crossed) parent my future grandchildren. From day one of the lives of their cherished babes, I will pass on to their grateful, eager new-parent minds-to always expect the unexpected.
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