Inside My Parental Mind

Following Spec's wedding weekend, while Raisinette and I were walking through the botanical gardens and waiting for the reception dinner to begin, she asked me how I would describe being a parent, what made it a different experience than say, being single or having no kids.

There are countless ways to answer this question and an equal number of individuals who would provide different answers than I. Because, obviously, (and despite what reams of how-to parenting guides say) there is no right answer here. The answers are a description of how human beings interact with each other, teach each other, and respond to each other. Therefore, every response and every situation is different. Therefore, my answers are relative.

But, here are some answers--and an especially illuminating thought on this topic that I realized during my recent trip to Georgia.

First, here are SOME random descriptions on what being a parent means to me:

I wasn't burning up the party scenes prior to 2000, but kids will slow down the social life. The girls would rather stay home attempting to get me to let them watch "High School Musical" or creating imaginary games with Byzantine rules than hanging out with my friends.

If you are a bad, lazy parent like me, your familiarity with such things as Disney Channel, Noggin, Dan Zanes, Raffi, Young Einsteins, the Koala Brothers, Jack Johnson, the Wiggles, and countless other bits of the childrens' media empire become as familiar to you as the cost of a gallon of milk, what work meeting you've got on Wednesday, and all the other "important" stuff that we keep in our brains.
If you are a GOOD, THOUGHTFUL parent, then your brilliant child will be driving a Lexus and doing logarithms in their head while my kid graduates from state college and spends his/her spare time blogging during work hours.

ANYWAY . . . on to the illuminating thought.

While we were in the Atlanta area, Lynda and the kids and I tagged along while MSquared, VM, and their two girls attended their end of season swim team celebration. The event was trophy presentations, ice cream, and culminated with a slide show of photos of all the swim team kids at practice, at play, and at meets. (There were, for point of reference, about 70 to 80 kids attending this event.) I didn't know any of them other than my two nieces, so when the slideshow began I decided to try and pick them out of the photographic crowd.

And here is where the realization began. I noticed that I was calculating the separate number of photos for each girl as the came up on the screen. And then I wondered if this was something that MSquared was doing. Because, if it were my girls at a swim meet event like this, one that featured photos, I can bet that they would somehow notice if one sibling was shown in more photos than the other.

So, I guess, that is another aspect of parenting. Would you call it living in fear? Nah! Maybe it's just being paranoid; maybe it's just being prepared for . . . whatever might happen. Maybe this only reflects badly on me or something. But, it's an honest reflection of some of the thoughts that occur to me from time to time.

Make what you want out of it.

Georgia Southern in the news?

(Click on the post title to be sent to the ESPN story.)

I am a graduate of Georgia Southern University . . . as any reader of Why Won't You Write?! already knows.

But GSU is a smallish school with a smallish sports program. It has won championships in Division I-AA, but that is a smaller division--a division that doesn't get media coverage.

So, then today I see this ESPN story about the death of a GSU football player that tragically died a few days after a motorcycle accident.

I don't intend to make light of what happened or to diminish the pain that the family is feeling, but I have to automatically wonder why this story got mentioned on the WorldWide Leading Sports website.

Call it the Roethlisburger Effect.

Back in the saddle

(I wonder if anyone will check my blog before they check my desk chair? Doubt it . . .)

We made it home yesterday.

What should have been about 11 hours of driving turned into around 13 hours of going and going and going. . .

Kentucky ruined everything due to very hard rain which led to slow (but safer) driving speeds and a resulting delay in transit speed. Plus we got stuck in crawling traffic in Kentucky as well. It never seems to happen in Tennessee and it always happens in areas where there are no alternative routes. It just slams right into you and you go nowhere.

But, home again, unpacked, tried to unwind a bit.

The house always has a bit of an unreal quality once you come back after being gone for a while. It feels a bit more staged than lived in. But then we start piling things up and it looks like home again.

I've got to catch up at work--at least I only missed two actual work days--and answer some important emails. Then I'll see if anything vital occurred in my absence. It doesn't seem so at this point in the day.

This afternoon I knock off work early to take Sarah to a dental appointment.

This weekend is the 11th wedding anniversary. I REALLY need to swing a babysitter so we can go see Superman Returns.

My Georgia fish story

Aaron's lament
Originally uploaded by PRPL33.

Well, here on our last day in South Georgia, I went pond fishin' with my brother Muleskinner.

We spent about an hour out by the pond and managed to catch a few largish bass in Muleskinner's friend's pond. We reckon this one (the first one that I reeled in) was about 6 pounds or so.

It was midday, so the fish weren't all that interested in biting. But it was a good time spent anyway.

Time to write

Coming to you live from beautiful Tifton, Georgia . . . where the humidity is high, the gnats are plentiful, and the temperature is always above 90.

It's been a good visit to this point. We had a (relatively) easy drive down to suburban Atlanta on Friday. We spent Friday night with MSquared (my oldest brother) and his family. Friday night was punctuated with a visit to the end-of-season swim meet celebration for my two nieces who are 10 and 7. The event featured a great many trophies for all the swimmers, plenty of ice cream, and a slide show of the teams greatest moments of the past five weeks. I think Sarah and Grace appreciated the ice cream a great deal and it might have motivated Sarah to work a bit harder on her swimming.

The next day we all caravaned down to Tifton, GA and began invading my parent's home. With my family of four, my oldest brother's family of four, and my sister MA's own family of . . . four, and Muleskinner's family of two (counting Rupert the Wonder Dog), its been a crowded house. Luckily, my sister lives a few blocks away, so there are other places to go. And Dad has a big yard (if you are willing to sit under the enormous shade of the pecan tree to escape the sun. Unfortunately, you can't escape the humidity. (It's a wet heat in Georgia, you know . . .)

Today (Sunday) was mostly spent at MA's house playing and swimming in her backyard pool. MA and EB provided a great spread of hamburgers and delicious grilled Greek chicken. Lynda and I spend some good time talking to Dad about his work experiences and comparing it to our own. It reawakened a desire in me to read more about the history of his company. (I once thought of making that the subject of a research topic, but I don't even know if it's possible. I think it would be interesting, however.) Tonight, after the kids had gone to bed, many of the adults played some poker with fictitious money. I ended the night with $20.50 more imaginary money than when I began.

Tomorrow MSquared and his family are heading back home to Greater Atlanta. It'll probably be more playing with the kids and spending some time talking and catching up with family. No commitment has been made to seeing Superman Returns yet, but I am sure that it will come.

I don't feel that I have spent adequate time providing illuminating details of the experience so far. I'll try to be more expressive next time.