My Jacked Up Life

Since I have become a parent, I’ve noticed how much parenting has changed since I was a kid.  Instead of getting easier, it seems to have gotten much more complicated.

 My childhood birthday parties were a simple thing.  Hell…..we were stoked if we got a cake from the bakery and not one that was made by mom and Betty Crocker.  We ate out once a week, rarely went to the movies and summer vacation meant playing out in the street with your friends.

But now it seems as though people have made this parenting thing much harder than it has to be, myself included. Talk about summer vacation and the kids are asking when they are going to the beach. Birthday parties mean elaborate themes, tons of friends and family and much better gifts than when I was a kid. 

Why do we, as parents do this? I have no idea and I’m not going to pretend that I do.

So, what brings me to all of this you ask. Let me tell you.  AC and I did the coolest thing last night. The Perseid meteor shower was in view and he really wanted to see a real meteor. So, I got some pillows and blankets and we went out  on the roof of the additional room of our house. We spread everything out and laid there and watched one of the most incredible things either of us have ever seen. Afterwards AC looks at me and says, ‘Mom, I had the best time tonight. This was the coolest thing we have ever done together, it even beats Disney World.’….wish he would would have told me that before I dropped over two grand on that damn trip.

Anyway….it was that statement that made me start thinking. We put our kids in countless activities….hockey, soccer, baseball, dance, drag then all over the country on vacations…it’s endless….all because we think these are the only things that will make unforgettable childhood memories for our kids and we couldn’t be more wrong. Here we are lying on my roof, laughing and joking around, watching this incredible meteor shower and my kid is having the best time.

All of a sudden it hit me…..I need to pay more attention to the little things.  That and I think I just showed my kid how to sneek out of the house from his bedroom window.