As my children grow older, we are starting to see some of the fruits of whatever parenting wisdom we’ve somehow induced into our children. This past weekend had a few moments where I felt awful proud of my kids and how they have grown and molded. The four year old still has some rough patches that need to be ground out, but hey, he’s four.
This Friday/Saturday was Momma-goes-retreating weekend so I had the first half to myself. I took the opportunity to abandon them. Well not abandon them per se, but allow them to co-habitate for a while with another large group of kids while me and fellow bachelor for the night went and saw 300. The payoff was that all 9 children/teens still had all their limbs attached when we got back a scant 2 hours later. No bruises, or cuts. There was a sliver that had to be excised, but some ice, a needle and a pair of tweezers made quick work of that.
Post movie madness, I took my brood of four to Wally World to shop for a present for the forty-fourth Pirate themed party of the year that Danny would attend in the morning. While it was kinda dicey taking the somewhat tired four year old shopping at 9:30 PM, I was proud of my older boy taking said brother under his wing and helping him along. In and out in 30 minutes wasn’t too hair pullingly bad.
Then morning drive to the pirate bay (20 minutes away) to attend the party, and having even the 12 year old join in the festivity with gusto (she brought her own pirate garb, and they all have their assigned pirate names, gratis multiple talk-like-a-pirate linkages). I stole away with the non-invitees during the lunch/present/cake phase, to feed them from the TriplePlay KFC-Pizza Hut-Taco Bell mashup, and then got myself some life preserving Starbucks for the second half of the day. They all played well, and again no puncture wounds or bruised pride.
Sunday after church was the biggest challenge, and the biggest pay off. Four families from church decided to go to lunch together. A table for 19 is a bit dicey at 12 PM in these parts, but we accepted a table for 6 and a table for 13 in the outer rim of the On The Boarded establishment. On this occasion the table of six was actually the ‘kids table’ for the non-toddler set, and all four of my kids sat, actually. sat. at that table and set a good example for their younger compatriots. Truth be told, they probably acted more polite than us brutes at the big boys table. But somehow through the 2 hour ordeal they survived without any bruised eyes or egos.
So Huzzah, this whole parenting thing is reaching the payoff stage. Now I need to find my rifle to clean and sword to polish for when the young men start stopping by to woo my gels. They won’t be chased away, but they might swallow a bit hard.
UPDATE: Extra bonus footage of eldest gel performing at the 6th grade choir performance over at Sweet Bippy.
