Pancakes!
Right now, this very moment, my oldest child is making pancakes. By himself. You know, the chocolate chip pancakes (there are no other kind in my world) that the kids can eat a double-batch of for breakfast with no leftovers to freeze that keep one of us near the griddle for over half an hour whenever we make them. I NOW HAVE A CHILD WHO IS CAPABLE OF MAKING PANCAKES FOR THE FAMILY!!!! In fact, on his first batch he doesn't even have the decency to flip one to the floor or burn half of them like I always did till the age of, um, 31.
There is this odd feeling involved on my part. It might be pride, it might be sentimental mushiness over my little boy growing up, but I think it really feels a lot more like this overwhelming awareness of impending FREEDOM. First pancakes, soon laundry, Cory's already learning to wash dishes, Garrett is getting the hang of setting the table, vacuuming is nothing after washing and baking are mastered, Liam will be able to help the younger kids through college-level schoolwork in a couple years, the older three can lift and plop babies now, soon we'll get them on diaper changing (or get the youngest out of diapers, but since he's a boy in my family I don't expect that to happen for a few years)...
I can suddenly see ten years down the road--BABYSITTING! Oh wow, they'll be able to babysit or at least older ones will be able to stay home (and vacuum, and do laundry, and make dinner) while I drive younger people around..DRIVING!!! They'll be able to drive! Cooking, babysitting, DRIVING, all this independence on its way in the next decade or two...I mean, I've always known somewhere deep inside that it could happen but it never seemed REAL until now---and I have never looked forward to middle- to late-middle age more than I do at this moment.
Jake, all those talks we had where we scoffed at people who got each kid a new car when they got their license, saying that was just excessive and unnecessary and we would never do that? I've changed my mind. For every little child without a license who has activities to be taken to, I'm happy to get a car for an older child with a license as long as it is understood that they are responsible for getting Little Child X to all his or her stuff. They will be bright, shiny, new cars with their own booster seats, a true celebration of my oldish age because I won't have to drive them anywhere, ever. A whole row of them that I will look at and smile over, and one day every Little Child will have somewhere to be at the same time and my house and driveway will empty of its taxis and kids and I will look out at the lonely driveway from inside my quiet house and...
(This is the part where the mommy thinks about her first little ones growing up, and realizes she will spend all her time worrying about the birdies who have left the nest in their cars out where she can't protect them, and how she will not know what to do with herself, and that she will be sad and wistful and will wish she could go back to this moment and make the pancakes herself and hold onto childhood for a little while longer, because she will stand in that quiet house with the driveway empty of all but the old 15-passenger van and mourn....HAH! That idiot will be standing there mourning because she has the TIME and QUIET in which to think such silly thoughts, and though I will happily be that idiot in exchange for the uninterrupted pre-9pm cup of tea such an person has the freedom to cry into, I have every confidence that *I* will simply make sure every car has a cell phone on board and then go do something, anything, but I won't be standing there crying, that's for sure--God gave me the sense to appreciate a good thing for an hour or two!)
I have never loved pancakes more than I do right now.
Sue :)
There is this odd feeling involved on my part. It might be pride, it might be sentimental mushiness over my little boy growing up, but I think it really feels a lot more like this overwhelming awareness of impending FREEDOM. First pancakes, soon laundry, Cory's already learning to wash dishes, Garrett is getting the hang of setting the table, vacuuming is nothing after washing and baking are mastered, Liam will be able to help the younger kids through college-level schoolwork in a couple years, the older three can lift and plop babies now, soon we'll get them on diaper changing (or get the youngest out of diapers, but since he's a boy in my family I don't expect that to happen for a few years)...
I can suddenly see ten years down the road--BABYSITTING! Oh wow, they'll be able to babysit or at least older ones will be able to stay home (and vacuum, and do laundry, and make dinner) while I drive younger people around..DRIVING!!! They'll be able to drive! Cooking, babysitting, DRIVING, all this independence on its way in the next decade or two...I mean, I've always known somewhere deep inside that it could happen but it never seemed REAL until now---and I have never looked forward to middle- to late-middle age more than I do at this moment.
Jake, all those talks we had where we scoffed at people who got each kid a new car when they got their license, saying that was just excessive and unnecessary and we would never do that? I've changed my mind. For every little child without a license who has activities to be taken to, I'm happy to get a car for an older child with a license as long as it is understood that they are responsible for getting Little Child X to all his or her stuff. They will be bright, shiny, new cars with their own booster seats, a true celebration of my oldish age because I won't have to drive them anywhere, ever. A whole row of them that I will look at and smile over, and one day every Little Child will have somewhere to be at the same time and my house and driveway will empty of its taxis and kids and I will look out at the lonely driveway from inside my quiet house and...
(This is the part where the mommy thinks about her first little ones growing up, and realizes she will spend all her time worrying about the birdies who have left the nest in their cars out where she can't protect them, and how she will not know what to do with herself, and that she will be sad and wistful and will wish she could go back to this moment and make the pancakes herself and hold onto childhood for a little while longer, because she will stand in that quiet house with the driveway empty of all but the old 15-passenger van and mourn....HAH! That idiot will be standing there mourning because she has the TIME and QUIET in which to think such silly thoughts, and though I will happily be that idiot in exchange for the uninterrupted pre-9pm cup of tea such an person has the freedom to cry into, I have every confidence that *I* will simply make sure every car has a cell phone on board and then go do something, anything, but I won't be standing there crying, that's for sure--God gave me the sense to appreciate a good thing for an hour or two!)
I have never loved pancakes more than I do right now.
Sue :)
posted by Sue Freivald at
10:04 PM
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