I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story from 1997. I would appreciate any comments about the story, aside from the shots at my parenting skills, and whether you enjoyed reading it. I do think that someday there will be a sequel. The children grew up (mostly), without too many emotional scars from our life choices. One works for me as a paralegal, one is pursuing a career in acting (which means he is still working on the day job concept), another is in the National Guard and working nights in the service industry (fancy term for bartender), and the youngest is in college. Yes, the baby that kicked her way through the mountains of West Virginia did NOT become a dancer.
We all appear to have survived it, but there were and still are moments of humor. As recently as a few minutes ago, we were noting the joys of the present as the “teenager” has now embarked on her own path of parenthood. Now she is learning the joys of sleeping with one eye open, while still working, and playing that tough job of wife and mother. I can say, and this is the reason for some of our more recent humor, the parental curse went full circle for her. She not only now has one just like her, but we’re convinced that it might be worse, since he is all boy with a very high IQ for finding the right button to push. For her the slings and arrows of injuries, loudness, and experiments in gravity are now her life, just as they were mine all those years ago. One of these days, maybe not in the so distant future, I’ll write about everyone facing their teenage years. I can attest to the fact that those years did for my gray hair, what water does for fish.
How I survived those teenage years is a wonderment. Especially since there were nights where I actually did meet the boyfriend whilst clad only in my boxer shorts and carrying a shotgun. (In fairness, someone locked themselves out after forgetting their keys, and then began bouncing rocks off my bedroom window at 2 a.m. What can I say? I’m an old soldier, who doesn’t much care for that kind of thing.) Like when they were little, having multiple teenagers is a far greater challenge than you might think. For example, at one point we had one in college, one in high school, one in middle school, and the youngest in grade school. Talk about a reason to drink! ~ Michael S. Pauley
We all appear to have survived it, but there were and still are moments of humor. As recently as a few minutes ago, we were noting the joys of the present as the “teenager” has now embarked on her own path of parenthood. Now she is learning the joys of sleeping with one eye open, while still working, and playing that tough job of wife and mother. I can say, and this is the reason for some of our more recent humor, the parental curse went full circle for her. She not only now has one just like her, but we’re convinced that it might be worse, since he is all boy with a very high IQ for finding the right button to push. For her the slings and arrows of injuries, loudness, and experiments in gravity are now her life, just as they were mine all those years ago. One of these days, maybe not in the so distant future, I’ll write about everyone facing their teenage years. I can attest to the fact that those years did for my gray hair, what water does for fish.
How I survived those teenage years is a wonderment. Especially since there were nights where I actually did meet the boyfriend whilst clad only in my boxer shorts and carrying a shotgun. (In fairness, someone locked themselves out after forgetting their keys, and then began bouncing rocks off my bedroom window at 2 a.m. What can I say? I’m an old soldier, who doesn’t much care for that kind of thing.) Like when they were little, having multiple teenagers is a far greater challenge than you might think. For example, at one point we had one in college, one in high school, one in middle school, and the youngest in grade school. Talk about a reason to drink! ~ Michael S. Pauley
RSS Feed