Enough of the heavy stuff. Lately, I was chatting with a friend of mine and he announced they were expecting their first child in January. What joyous news. As is often the case, the couple is assuming that they will be able to continue, as now, once the baby is born, Did I just hear you chuckle? Yep, we all remember our own conviction that we have control of our situation!

Sleepless nights. Until the wee bairn is in the house you ain’t heard nothing (mostly).

Constant vigilance, no one mentioned that!

That one could feel love so intensely, no kidding!

What happened to the tidy house, lol!

 That all aside, as the years progress, we find out that these human beings that came into our lives, not only consume our daily life one way or another but are independent characters. They are not of us, but we are custodians of a new emergent independent human being. We swing between frustration and realization as we grapple with that truth. The sooner we can understand that we are merely the lighthouse to guide their ship, the better we can, the better. Their ship will leave our warning /positioning light soon enough and often, but our function is to be here when needed and cast our light or presence whenever called upon.

My pet peeve from my mother was: “I could have told you so!” Hence, I err to the extreme in never allowing a friend or child to hear from me this phrase. As kind as I can I will voice options and let them know there is a choice, I hope you feel that in my writing.

Mother used to say: “You live under my roof, you obey my rules”. When she came to visit me, I thought, right, my house my rules. So much for that one, LOL.