Children Grow Up

I remember clearly the day each was born. Men were not allowed in the delivery room in those days and so never having experienced it I don’t know for sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. I do know that, at the time, I was very content to pace the waiting room floor. From the first child to the last the anticipation and wonder never diminished. A new life was coming into the world. I was taking responsibility for it and it was a part of me. The doctor’s announcement and invitation to see the child was better than a first kiss and twice as exciting. You were going to meet someone for the very first time that would be part of your life forever. This was truly a gift and a special moment from God (I was to find out that, while benevolent,  God does have a sense of humor).

When we got them home the house was immediately filled with the smell of babies, powder, lotion, formula and other things. The rooms began to be clutter with baby toys and, of course, relatives. To this day the smell of babies snaps me back to the days my own children were brought home. Feeding, changing and cleaning, I was up half the night and then running to the store for baby supplies. Exhausting work. I looked like hell, the wife looked like hell, but I wouldn’t have given it up for anything. 

Then one day, almost imperceptibly, a personality emerges. A brand new person appeared in our home. The child had likes and dislikes and they were not necessarily the same as my own. Instead of putting the baby here or there, feeding it what we knew was good for it, we now had to convince, cajole or out right enforce our will upon this little monster. It is not a job for the timid.

School bells rang and all of a sudden I was attending parent teacher conferences. Some report cards were good (very good); some were bad (very bad). There were fights after school. Great childhood friendships were formed. Summer vacations came and went and before I know it someone had a date. A Date! What the hell happened to my baby?        

From here the ride really picked up speed. I guess I had always liked excitement and by-God I had surely come to the right place! First, I was happy to find out that I was an idiot and knew nothing. Oh, they never said it to my face but I knew what they were thinking. The new hormones had totally warped their minds and distorted any sense they were born with. Up became down and left was right, I even started to get used to it. They would run off the reservation and I would have to run-um back on, and I mean every day! It may not have been Armageddon but it was a battle.     

You begin to wonder if they will ever have the common sense to survive on their own. In fact, I seriously doubted it. Cars appeared in the driveway, friends, just as nuts as my own kids started showing up at the door. Surely, I thought, this is the blind leading the blind! I was hopping for some calming influence to enter their lives; instead I got a bunch of Alice Cooper’s walking through my house. That was it! All my hopes and dreams for these children were going down the bowl. Cars began to get smashed up and empty beer cans started to turn up in odd places. I loved these children. Taught them right from wrong and passed on my wisdom. They received discipline when necessary and I kept them out of serious trouble. What did I do wrong? My babies had run a muck! What happened? 

What did happen truly amazed me at the time. Today I know it was just the natural order of things, but then – shock and awe! All of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere I became a great seer with the wisdom and knowledge of the ages. They asked advice, wanted my opinion and miracle of all miracles that actually followed what I recommended! Then they actually began to develop goals and objectives for their lives. Even their friends started to look relatively normal.

Today one runs an Electrical Contracting Business, another is a well respected Financial Planner and Broker and the last runs a successful Commercial Art Company in Manhattan. Well, all my worry about what they would do with themselves and what would become of them was apparently a false alarm. But I still shake my head sometimes when I recall those days gone by. But they did become responsible adults. They grew up.