Take the other night for example. I was sitting at the table in the living room eating some food(it doesn't matter what it was) and Elena was standing at the table eating and watching TV with me. This is a fairly common scene since she we don't go and sit at a dining table, and she loves to shovel a bit of food in her mouth, walk around or watch some TV, then come back to the food on the table. Anyways, back to my point. I noticed after a few bites that there seemed to be a pattern in what was going on to my left. Elena had her head turned slightly away from me, but was still watching me like a hawk out of the corner of her eye. I proceeded to do the same to see what she was up to. I noticed that as I would lift my fork to my mouth, she would almost exactly mimic my action with her food, and that she would chew as long as I did, swallow, and do the same when I would take a drink from my glass of milk. When I finally turned to face her and she realized she was caught, she just started laughing and did a small little dance with her shoulders that she does from time to time when she gets particularly excited.
All in all, it was a pretty nifty thing that most people without children will look at and go, "Who cares, that's nothing to get excited about." But parents know how special that is, especially at that young of an age. It's times like that you realize just how much your kids watch you and what you do, and just how much you influence who they are becoming. None of us are perfect, despite how much we might try to be. Although I always knew that I would have to watch how I speak and act around my child, that night it kinda drove the point home.
It makes me think of my parents. It's crazy because most people(and I am sure that my daughter will be a part of this group as she grows up) view their parents as these other-worldly fuddy-duddies who led somewhat plain lives and must have always been these relatively boring and predictable people. You look at the fact that when you are a teen, having fun with your friends and living it up, they are sitting at home watching TV and reading books and occasionally going out to the movies or dinner with each other. You tend to take away that your parents have a very poor social life, and are somewhat boring people, and must have always been. What you don't realize is, that your parents were just like you(not always) when you were young, but there came a time when they had to grow up.
Would your parents love to be able to go to work from 8-5 and then magically shut everything from work off at 5:01 and just do what they want all day. I would be willing to wager that most would. However, we don't. You have additional things to worry about, like what the family will eat that night for dinner, how is everything going with your children, what am I going to do at work tomorrow and later this week, how is my financial situation, etc. Even after all that, they still need to spend time with the spouse/children. It drags on a person, and at the end of the day, there isn't room left for "living it up" or "tearing up the town". Some parents might find that in their spare time, they want to go out and have a blast, but when I get those nice vignettes of personal time, I just want to relax and let my mind stop worrying about what is happening in my life for a while. To some people, this might make you look lazy or boring, but to you, it's what keeps you sane. It makes me appreciate what my parents and those around me had to sacrifice to make sure I came out reasonably well adjusted and sane.
Now, with all that said, I know that I have a wife who is extremely helpful. She does the laundry, takes care of most of the cleaning, and overall pulls more than her fair share of the work around the house. Even with all she does, parenting is tough. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like raising a kid as a single parent. I truly have a ton of respect for those people. I know you guys/gals have to put up with a lot of crap, and sacrifice a lot of your personal time to make sure that your children come out ok.
When I was younger, I loved video games. I played a ton of them from just about every genre available to mankind. I played a ton, and took pride in just how good I was at games, and how quickly I could pick them up and be good at them. Even when I was married, I would play them and I still had a fair amount of time to hang out with the wife and watch our favorite TV shows when they came on, instead of now having to rely on a DVR. Any day of the week, I could call my wife on the phone and say, "Hey babe, let's go see a movie tonight" and when she agreed, that was all that needed to be planned. Nowadays, with a child, we have to find a sitter, feed the kid first, find a showtime that works around our sitter and gets us home early enough to bathe the baby and put her down to bed. It's not that often that we get to do it, but thanks to helpful family, we get to enjoy it from time to time. Now someone who is reading this may think to themselves, "Wow, you make parenting seem like such a horrible thing." That thought couldn't be any further from the truth. Every smile, laughing fit, funny dance, or mannerism that you see them do that you know either you used to do, or still do and they must have picked up makes every moment worth it.
Just thought I would add a picture from yesterday. My daughter for the most part hates it when people play with her hair. She doesn't mind brushing, or someone rubbing or scratching her head, but is very picky about playing with the hair. Apparently, the people at our daycare are some sort of magicians because they manage to put her hair up in pigtails and other assorted styles and she seems completely content with it. I imagine that they do it when she is having her lunch/snack as she seems most passive about people messing with her when she is eating(she truly is my daughter). The picture below is her sitting on my knee with her hair up. She looked cute so we got a picture of it. Don't know why I am enclosing it, I guess I just like seeing a picture of the two of us.
