Tuesday, May 6, 2008

I'm too old for this...

Boy, nothing slaps you in the face to mark the passage of time like seeing your infant child in an outfit that was worn by an older sibling.

"I swear Ben was just in that oufit that Samuel has on like a few months ago, right? What?! What do you mean it was three years ago??"

Actually, I'm not too old for this. I'm kinda glad that we had kids later in life than our parents did. It keeps us young in a way.

Most of the time, I don't really feel my 38 years. Sometimes I feel them too much. But overall, I don't mind the fact that I will be 56 when Samuel graduates from High School, almost 20 years older than my Dad was when I graduated. Strange to think about that.

I often think that my frequent lack of patience with crying, fussy children is due to being almost 40, selfish and set in my ways, and trying to raise a baby. But if I remind myself of who I was, where I was in life, and how my head was screwed on so crooked as an early 20-something, I think it's much better this way. And if you think about it, the trend is going this way. People our age are having kids much later in life than the previous generation, and what that means is that we are allowing ourselves more time to experience young single adult life and to find ourselves before we committ to the next chapter. Does this sound like lame gibberish? I think it means that maybe we are a little more balanced in our parenthood, and our mid-life crisis won't be so severe because we still have our kids with us as a distraction.

I don't know....maybe not. Maybe it will be worse!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree Chris... 40 years old with a 19 month old... not the picture in my head when I was 20, but then, my head was on crooked too!! It's good to have our family of choice around to help us with our perspective... thanks for the ramblings, they make perfect sense to me!

Kim Becker said...

I think it's better to have your kids while you're good and young so you can screw them up along with yourself. :)
Seriously, I guess it's up to God as to when he wants to bring someone into the world. I mean unless you're abstinent, he's always got a way to create someone new. We think we are in charge of such things, but we're really not. Liam can tell you all about that someday. Or should we call him 1 of 10,000. (That's what Chris' sperm count was down to after vasectomy number one.)
I think we do what we can with what we've got on our plate. And of course pray, pray, pray.