Darn Kids

Gag!  I hate smarmy kid posts.  Little cute parenting stories, yadda, yadda, yadda.  And I’m a parent fergodssake, imagine how sick of it the non-parent set must be!

But my 4 year old girl was up all night barfing; doing same all day today.  Pitiful, sniffling little thing, too weak to even work up a good cry. All she wants to do is snuggle into my lap and suck her thumb.  And all I want to do is sit there and hold her.

Is there anything in life other than your kids that brings forth this emotion?  I don’t even know what to call it.  It is love of course, but not like my love for chocolate, or biking, or reading, or my parents, or a certain actress who I won’t name, or even my wife. 

This is something different, beyond any human control, it is an imperative that must be obeyed.  And we rejoice in the duty.  We joyously give more of ourselves to our kids than we ever give to anything or anyone else in our lifetime.

It is the most selfless, and at the same time the most self-satisfying act that we ever perform.

 

 

 

 

Lesson from my 4 year old

2:30am, a strange noise slowly makes its way into the darkened corridors of my mind, knocking on doors. Nothing.  Another one barges in, stomping its feet and banging the walls, lights slowly coming on, groggy brain cels respond, “What?  Who is it? What’s going on?”

It is my 4 year old is what it is.  I hit the lights and she stands there beside the bed, crying, draggled, thumb-in-mouth, the picture of abject misery.

“I wet the bed.”

Oh goody.  The old brain cels immediately slam their doors and go back to bed, I on the other hand roll out and do my duty.

2 minutes later, the sheets are off, she is changed, I whip a clean blanket down and snuggle her into it, saying “No sheets for now, it will be fun, like camping.”

Her face changes instantly into a beaming, satisified, ray of sunshine.  The agony of only a minute before is gone completely, the disc wiped, the drive re-formatted.  Never happened.

Why can’t i learn that trick?