So you want to be a parent...

My kids are home from school today.  It is brilliant planning by the school system.  Schedule an in-service day on the day after trick-or-treating.  I know, I know...the teachers are saying, "It is STILL a work day for us."  And I agree.  But, see...I've been a teacher.  I've been through in-service days.  So, I know that while you must sit through meetings and try desperately to stay awake. (or grade papers on the sly)  You also get to sit in the quiet, use your brain for the greater good, eat lunch out with your friends, and GET PAID!  LOL  I love you, teacher friends!!!

Over here in crazy land, it is a completely different scene. 

Will the police come if the domestic dispute is between five siblings?

The kids are so jacked up that even the 70lb dog is hiding.

I wouldn't trade a minute of my life with anyone.  Yes, I actually ran through a few names to make sure that statement was accurate.  If I gave up the insanity, I'd also give up the joy.

I recently saw some tweets from a young girl about her intense desire to have "BABIES".

I shut down my phone and shook my head.  "People have no idea what parenting is really about."

But then I remembered that NEITHER DID I!

I was that girl fifteen years ago.  I'm sure there were plenty of people shaking their heads at me.  You know what I thought parenting was about before having kids?  I thought it was about dressing them in cute clothes and taking them places.  Yeah...I was an idiot.

It has taken me fourteen years to learn what parenting is about and I know I have years of growing and learning to go.  If I could tell the young version of me anything about what was to come...I would keep my big mouth shut!  :)  'Cause I wouldn't want to freak my young self out!

The idea of holding five fragile lives in my hands is almost too much for me to process even now.  They each have unique personalities and interests.  Some days they make me so proud.  And other days they make me think I've failed.  How could I have had the courage to take that on if I knew what was coming.  The details...oh, the details.  One hates peanut butter, one loves skinny jeans.  One has fears that I'll never fully understand, and one lives to PUSH EVERY BUTTON YOU HAVE.  One loves justice, another lives with his foot dangling across "the line." The meals, the laundry, the messy rooms, the messy life, the noise, the chaos, the toys, the birthdays, the holidays, the cost.

The COST.  What has been the cost of parenting for me?  

I posted a statement on facebook the other day and got some really funny and poignant answers.  I simply wrote:  Parenting is:  and asked people to fill in the blank.  My favorite answer was ...Parenting is: a reason to take up drinking and smoking.  LOL!  I needed that laugh!

But, I got so many reminders of what parenting does for me.  

It refines me.  It takes the selfishness I have and crushes it like an avalanche.  It forces me to think of someone else before myself.  It has pushed me to look at people differently.  The old me would have judged people by the way they dress, or talk.  The parent in me realizes that those differences are a gift. And lets be honest.  It has actually made me a little bit more amazing.  The old me would require complete silence to write a blog post.  I just wrote this one while the dog ran in circles under my desk, two kids had a sword fight and there are two devices playing different songs in the background.  

For those of you that have already raised teenagers, DO NOT...I repeat...DO NOT tell me what's coming at me! ;)  I'd rather stay blissfully in the dark!