What a Life!

I’ve found the perfect new baby gift (for those who I don’t have time or desire to knit for, at least): Babyproofing Your Marriage.

From this book I have learned:

1. I am not alone. Other parents face many of the same challenges I am facing.

2. Ideas for how these challenges might be addressed or overcome. Ideas, not solutions. I don’t believe in solutions from books anymore. But that’s another story.

3. A great conversation piece that I can enjoy with my husband. If nothing else, we can page through the book and laugh at the cartoons.

I’m buying it as a happy Valentine’s Day gift to us.

Incidentally, we were planning to eat out this weekend (to celebrate Valentine’s Day), but Steve went to have his this morning. There was this tiny chance that he would need a crown. Yeah. Let’s just say that by the time they were done drilling the filling out, the tooth had four fractures instead of just one. Ladies and gentlemen, he’s getting a crown.

And if you want to know what parenting is really like (the part nobody tells you about)…this blog post (and the comments that follow it) is well worth your time. Some things you won’t ever understand until you do them yourself…so if you don’t have kids, don’t necessarily go over there expecting to be enlightened. Some things you just don’t know until you do them. But if you’ve been there, it is a post that you will understand in ways you never thought you would.

I remember when we were doing the pre-marital counseling thing, Fr. Bush told us that we should have children early in our marriage because children are good for marriages.

In a lot of ways, I agree. Children give you something that you both have in common that you are willing to fight to the death for. A united front to stand behind. Married couples without kids don’t have that kind of glue holding them together.

At the same time, the craziness of it all can leave your little “plant” of a marriaged quite wilted and in need of attention. [Thus the book I mentioned above.] You put so much into caring for your children that there isn’t much left for yourself. [Thus the blogpost I referenced above.]

But all in all, I would rather have kids than to live my life without them.

I think kids make you a better person. Having someone to invest everything you’ve got in develops a kind of self-less-ness that you would never aquire otherwise. I mean, pets are great, but kids take it to a whole nother level. Before I had kids, I just didn’t have a clue, and now that I have kids, I see that same cluelessness in people I know who don’t have kids. Not everyone is able to have kids (for many reasons), but if you can, I think you should.

Even if it means eating grilled cheese and tomato soup for Valentine’s Day.