The Evolution

     Kids those wonderful bundles of joy that make you lose sleep, miss meals, late for work and turn gray from worrying. That same beautiful bundle that you’ve fought for when teachers didn’t want to call him/her by the name they wanted to be called by; only to grow up and request that they be called by the same moniker they didn’t like a few short years ago. Ahhh yes, these bundles seem to ooze endless amounts of joy through the very pores of their existence. You smile, you’re happy. Through tired eyes you say to yourself, “This is what I wanted”.

     As these once beloved bundles grow older (notice I said “once beloved”), you delve into girlfriends/boyfriends and other “traumatic” life issues. The only thing a sane parent starts to think about is the gene pool. Oh yea, admit it, you’ve looked at the person your son or daughter is dating and prayed a silent prayer that it won’t last long, taking one look at the other person and half smiling trying to be cordial. Now you have a sullen young person and life sucks, teachers, suck and you aren’t cool anymore (remember “once beloved”). You’re the one running around looking for dress clothes for a kid that never liked to dress up. You’re arguing with teachers over stupid things kids do, and of course me being me, I’m the one that says “you should have seen what I used to do”.

    As you navigate the ebb and flow of the crazy waves known as the teenage years, you start to wonder. You wonder if you’re doing things the right way, you remember when you were a teen and your own parents acted like they forgot what that was like. We won’t be like them, not us, not on this day. Suddenly, you’ve reached the point  where there are not enough adjectives to describe the things a young human being can do to test  the nerves coursing through your body. Once again, you’re relegated to smiling proudly as you watch them participate in school activities; all the while thinking and wondering what would happen if you put your hands around their scrawny little necks just for a little while.

     Navigating through these rough seas will have you wondering if this product you put on this fine earth will function without you around. You have other people taking credit for their successes, you have some saying the success of others is the reason your child is successful. Silently, you look at these people and you know “jackass if it weren’t for me, this clown wouldn’t be here right now”, but you keep that thought to yourself. There’s people noticing your son/daughter, rest assured it’s probably because of the effort you put in as a parent/cheerleader, it’s not because of some half wit person who gets his jollies by continuously putting kids down only to take all the credit when they succeed. These are the ones that make it in spite of people like that, not because of them. Once again, as a parent, you smile to yourself and think “I dare you to come around when he/she is successful”.

     Now you’re at the stage where a separation is in order. It’s necessary to tell your son/daughter “so long, make your way in the world”. It is at that point it seems they instantaneously revert back to that bundle of joy you so proudly cradled.  Somehow watching them become young adults almost erases those crazy teen years. They almost get it, almost. They’re able to tie their shoes without you and heck some can almost get dressed without you. You’ve come to another level of understanding with each other, oh you’re still not cool, but who else are they going to call when they need something?

      You’ve cleaned the snotty noses, kissed the little boo boos and stayed awake many a night with worry. You’ve lectured and counseled, hugged and admonished. You’ve even said some things that weren’t so nice at times, they lived. Your little bundle of joy has become a well rounded, open minded, intelligent individual. You didn’t have to beat them half to death, there are no ring marks around their necks and they can put a sentence together without mangling the English language. All of this as we parents watched the evolution of something we certainly thought was a creature from another planet become what we didn’t think was possible….human. For some of us, this evolution makes for a funny story later down the road. For some, to be able to sit back and smile, maybe chuckle about the journey this evolution brought you on is priceless. ~Just my two cents