When you hit a baseball, there is a certain spot on the bat, the sweet spot, that makes better contact with the ball, making it go farther and hitting it harder than if you were to hit the same pitch further up or down on the bat.
Right now, my wife and I are in the sweet spot of parenting. I’m not sure it will ever get easier/better than it is right now. Our kids are ages 9, 6 and 4. Our worries about them are fairly minimal. They are all in good health. They all seem to be able to make and keep friends. For the most part, they are all polite. They can carry on conversations with adults and seem to be doing well in school. They are liked by their teachers and pick up on information quickly, needing little assistance with homework. Their problems are easily solved by Band-Aids, ice cream and heart-to-heart conversations.
We are past the “dark days” of parenting. The days when no one slept through the night. The days of constantly washing cloth diapers. We no longer have to oversee every moment, every bite of food, every crawl towards the stairs, every second in the bathtub, every afternoon in the backyard.
We have yet to enter what I imagine to be the “even darker days” of teenage-land. Of sleepless nights wondering what our kids are doing with their friends, of social media drama, boyfriend and girlfriend troubles, and driving cars (eek!)
Nope, right now were smack dab right in the middle of these two worlds. I think we’ll plead blissful ignorance as to what the future holds, and just stay right here in our own little happy place for the next few years.
Happy parenting to you all!