Time On

I thought it would take less time to raise children as they grew into independent personages. It doesn't. It only becomes more intellectual. Intellectual pursuits are so time consuming.

While time in their younger years was spent bathing, feeding, teaching basic human decency, and just by being present, time together was the obvious display of love. This obvious display of love in the teen-age years is replaced by either: complete and total rejection on both sides, annoyance of everyone in a 3-mile radius, driving them to endless destinations, cooking some form of ignorable vegetable, trying to make fruit in its original package enticing (this does NOT change with time), reasoning with them about boys not providing the sole reason for existence, awkwardly presenting the truly, deeply, blessed part of their reasons to live - their God-their dreams-their families and friends-and the gift of school. (Each of these reasons to live are patiently waiting for their own time to be first rejected and then embraced.)

All of this only takes more time. I'm so glad I took the time to finish my college degree - which is in Communications (huh...). Otherwise, I would be even more ill-equipped for the level of intelligence and thoughtfulness required to raise two girls to be self-sufficient citizens of a male directed world.

I would like our Chandler, Arizona, Fox Crossing neighborhood to know that this is what I'm doing with my time instead of painting the house or mowing the lawn, or walking the dog....or moving on...