As relatively new parents, Michele and I are really just beginning to understand how long and deep the parenting commitment is. Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen some pretty clear examples of how our own parents have fulfilled that commitment. Here’s an abbreviated list of a few of the more memorable ones:
- driving half way across the continent to be here with us
- dropping everything to come and be with James after Michele went into early labor
- spending nights and mornings with James
- daycare drop offs
- loading and unloading the dishwasher a million times
- painting a staircase
- adobo delivery
- neverending laundry service
- countless hours of baby rocking, swaying, bouncing, burping and sharing
- television extraction
- flowerbed creation
- listening, strategizing, coaxing, cheering, supporting
- giving baths
- reading storybooks
- dog walking
- the list could go on and on
We tend to think of our own effort in terms of 24 hour cycles, repeating over and over. It’s challenging, to say the least, to try to fast-forward 20 or 30 or 40 years to imagine how we might be supporting our boys in the future. For right now, they’ve been fed, they’re relatively clean, and (hopefully) sleeping … that’s enough for now. The future will come soon enough.
Thanks Lala, Mamie and Poppa! I’m not sure how we could have had such a successful start without you!