Yes, she's strange and different...but not THAT different.

08 November 2010

Some Lessons

Being a parent teaches you lessons about life. OK, I don't really know about YOU but it has certainly taught me a lot of things.

I used to be leery of touching "nasty" things. After spending an hour standing naked under a warm shower and simply holding my explosively diarrheaic 8-month old son while he evacuated everything he had eaten since the beginning of his life all over the two of us, that's gone. I now know that skin is pretty much immune to anything that comes out of a living body.

I used to be totally skeeved out by fuzzy caterpillars. After responding to a number of "GET IT OFF ME!" calls, I've learned that I can pick up any bug. Even though the fuzzy caterpillars still skeeve me out.

I used to think that children didn't develop personalities and senses of humor until they got to be somewhere around high school age. Having had too much exposure to my own two's smart-ass remarks, I've learned that kids can be funny individuals starting about the time they figure out the difference between "me" and "the world".

I used to believe that there was no punishment too harsh for someone who was murderous, cruel, totally depraved and insensitive to the rest of humanity. Watching my 2-year-old daughter almost die while in a coma taught me that the loss of a child is a punishment that I could not wish upon another human being regardless of the circumstances. I simply can't wish that kind of mental and emotional agony upon someone else. Hell, I don't even want someone to go through what I did, and my daughter is perfectly fine today.

Kids teach us a lot, including infinite patience and perpetual love and untainted truth but the largest lesson my kids have taught me is that positive changes not only can happen but must happen if we are to continue to grow after we become adults.

  • On 11/09/2010 9:57 PM, Anonymous Ariel said…

    Parenthood is agonizing bliss. My daughter is 7 and I'm pregnant with another and it's quite different this time around, to know somewhat what I'm getting into.
    Once upon a time my daughter threw up in my mouth. We both survived that night, although I wasn't sure I wanted to... :)
    I don't like caterpillars either, fuzzy or non fuzzy. Isn't it funny how we learn?
    Thank you for sharing the link to your blog, I look forward to getting to know you more!
    I'm so jealous you've worn the red dress... :)

     
  • On 11/15/2010 3:50 PM, Blogger Jami said…

    Thanks!

    Don't be jealous, please. I'm just lucky enough to live close enough to Jenny and pushy enough to talk her into letting me do it. Wear your own red dress and revel in it!

     

Post a Comment

<< Back to Front Page