At One Fell Swoop

All of a sudden, I heard "Mean Parent" voice coming out of me yesterday.

I had scheduled to pick up The Little yesterday at 2:00 to take him to the Sears Tower. (I'm a volunteer with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and have a "Little"). As I was heading for the subway, I got a call from his mom who said he'd run away. Again.

I won't go into details, but later that afternoon he re-appeared and I was talking to him on the phone:

Me: You know, that's pretty inconsiderate to take off like that when we had plans. I don't do that to my friends. It's really unacceptable, don't you agree?

Little: Yeah

Me: What makes you think it's okay to do that to me or your mom?

Little: I don't know.

Me: 'I don't know' is a pretty lazy answer. I need a different answer.

Little: Silence

Me: Well, your taking off like that has messed up our plans, so I'm gonna go on with my day now. I'll be away next weekend so I'll call you when I get back. . . .

I felt kinda lousy afterwards.

Every once and a while, I've gotten a longing to be a parent. And when that happens, God in all Her wisdom gives me a wake-up call to the realities of it.
Things like:

Baby-sitting a nephew. Exploding diapers. Temper tantrums from Hell. Losing a toddler (Oh my God!) then finding him asleep under the bed. Eighteen years of this? No way!

Doggy-sitting. Having to come straight home from work otherwise the dog will explode. (What would it be like to have a kid?)

Flying off for a weekend. (See previous post) How do parents DO this? Better yet, how do they do without it?

Those are the little wake-up calls I get whenever I think about being a parent.

I'm glad I've listened to them.

It's a good thing my parents didn't.