The Bean Blog

When did it happen?

Aug 7, 2004 A day in our life

When did I become the one who tells you it’s getting late and time to settle down? When did that happen? It seems like just yesterday I was having my own slumber party and my own pillow fight. Or just last week I was giggling with my friends and talking about boys [ok, so that really was last week and the boy was Ben Affleck, but you get my point]. But tonight it is Keaton having the slumber party and he and his five friends are the rambunctious ones. How did I get here?

On Thursday Keaton turned ten. Yes, ten years old. How can that be? How can I have a ten year old? Do they just let anybody be a parent these days? Even a child? I still feel like a child.

When I was little I thought my parents had it all together. They knew exactly what they were doing, where they were going and how to get there. They could do no wrong. But now I’m them. I’m thirty years old and I have my own children. I’m the one saying turn down the TV, or it’s time for bed, or no more ice cream. What’s up with that?

And I certainly don’t have it all together. I don’t even know what I want to be when I grow up yet? I still like to turn up my car radio really, really loud and sing til my throat hurts [of course, nobody wants to listen to that deafening noise that comes from my mouth, but so be it]. I like Eminem and Cassidy’s Hotel. In fact, Hotel is the ringer on my cell phone right now.

I still want to skip school [or work as the case may be---but not that I ever skipped school, Mom and Dad! ], go to Dairy Queen for a Mr. Misty Freeze [do they still make those?] and eat it at the park. Or skip Channel One [are kids still forced to watch that??] during second period and get a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardees. (Necole totally knows what I’m talking about here, don’t you?!!)

At soccer practice this week I realized this was Keaton’s sixth year in soccer. And he is going to be a fifth grader in two weeks. The top of his school. The big dogs. Next year it’s off to middle school. And I just cannot believe how fast these years have flown past me. You always hear people say stuff like “they grow up in a blink of an eye” or “you turn around and they’re teenagers.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it’s true. When you yourself are the child it’s an eternity until adulthood. But somehow when you reach that adulthood it zooms by in a flash. How can 18 years of childhood go by at snail speed, but 12 years of adulthood goes by in about a second?

Suddenly I realize the importance of a curfew or why you shouldn’t swear [although this knowledge still does not stop these curse words from leaving my lips on occasion]. Suddenly I understand why children need an early bedtime [and it's not just because kids need their sleep, but also because parents need their sanity--and time to write in their blog!]. Suddenly I get why candy for lunch and ice cream for dinner is not a good idea (at least not every day). Suddenly I’m all grown up! Go figure. When did that happen?

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