The Morning Drive

                              
My husband is usually in charge of taking the kids to school but he was out of town this week so I drove the kids. We drive neighbor boy and his brother so the car is full. The kids are pretty low-key in the morning but they will chat.

I really enjoy this age because you can have legitimate conversations with them and their perceptions about things are highly amusing. This morning we were listening to the radio and I remarked, "I feel like all the songs on the radio are about grown ups wanting to be kids again." This struck a cord with neighbor boy who exclaimed, "Yes! There are!" Then he went on to name at least 4 songs with this theme. "Why do you think that is?"
"Because being a grown up is horrible."
"Why?"
"Because you have to have all of these responsibilities," he replied. "It would only be good if you had like, a lot of money and no kids."
My oldest daughter chimed in, "Yeah, I'm not ever having kids. I'm only having cats." I used to say the same thing when I was a teenager. Look at me now - mommy blogging and shit.

                      
Neighbor boy agreed, "I'm not having kids either. Well, maybe like 2." He went from 0 to 2 pretty quickly.

I was a little sad that at 12 years old they have this perception that having kids is horrible. Don't get me wrong - having kids can be kind of horrible. They make you sleep deprived, drain your bank account, roll their eyes, talk back, make huge messes BUT they are amazing, funny, sweet, and bring soooooo much joy. I'm glad that I had kids after all.

I addressed their having-kid bashing, "Maybe you won't have any kids, maybe you'll have a few. I think children come when they are supposed to and that God gives you as many kids as you can handle. That's why I only have two. God saw me and thought, She can't handle anymore than she has." Thanks God - that's good looking out.

My oldest said, "Well, I was an ACCIDENT." That's her favorite thing to rub in my face. I was quick to correct her. "Not, an ACCIDENT. A SURPRISE."

She rolled her eyes. "That's like the same thing."
"Oh, your life has been hard?"
She thought about it. "No." Exactly.

She makes it sound like I was some crack whore that got knocked up by my pimp or something. Was it ideal? No, but it turned out okay. Life is not butterflies and rainbows  - it is unplanned pregnancies and unexpected auto-repairs.

My youngest daughter doesn't have a better outlook on family life. I remarked to her that I was disappointed that we wouldn't be going to see a new Hunger Games this November. It was a tradition for so many years.
"They should still make more movies. We need to find out what happens to Katniss," she said.
"We know what happened to Katniss. She married Peta and had kids and lived happily ever after," I replied.
"No," my daughter said.
"Yes, that's how they ended it."
She sighed, "That is just so stupid and boring."
"What? Getting married and having kids."
"Yes!"

There you have it folks - my children think having kids and families is stupid and boring and basically the worst.

So, in 15 years this blog will be called the Bad Grand-Mom Award Blog and it will chronicle the visits I have with my grandcats. Whatever.