Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A Note to Those Who Are Not Yet Parents

Be sure to really cherish and enjoy the following activities while you can:



  • sleeping past 6:30 a.m.

  • sleeping in general

  • waking up leisurely and when you want to

  • sitting down to eat breakfast/lunch/dinner

  • showering

  • going to the bathroom

  • grocery shopping

  • typing an email

  • talking on the phone


Once you have kids, you will do none of these things alone, unhindered, and uninterrupted for a very, very long time (unless your kids sleep or unless someone watches them for you at some point).


Some people will see this list above and think we (Willis and I) were nuts for having kids as early as we did (I was 26 when Nora was born, I think, and we had been married for two years). I think we were brilliant. (Why, yes. Yes I am tooting my own horn.) Here's why:



  • We didn't get a chance to realize what we were going to be missing once we started having kids (this is why we didn't even bother "having nice things" to start).

  • We will still be pretty young and feisty when our kids graduate high school (and even college, hopefully).

  • We will, as a result, most likely get to know our grandkids and know them for a long time (if things go well).

  • We will be able to afford to do the fun things that we wished we could have done when we first got married, and we might be able to do some of those fun things with our grown family.

  • We can actually foresee (for the most part) when it will be "just us" in our house again. Not only can we plan for that, but we can look forward to it.

  • We knew we wanted kids. We also knew that if we got a chance to settle in without them, we'd probably never have them.


With all that said, I know that there are valid, good reasons to not have children until later (not being married, for example, or pursuing careers, etc.). I'm just letting you know that it isn't us that deserves your pity. Save that for yourself. You're going to need it, my friends.

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