There's Always Something

One thing I can say for certain about parenting: it is not boring.  Every week - sometimes every day - it seems something happens either to me or someone in my family.  And here's where parenting really becomes a spiritual practice, because whatever happens we just have to respond, no matter what.  It is great training for the development of those intangible virtues like attitude and discipline and calmness under pressure.  One week someone is sick, another week someone has a big project they need extra support on at school, or there is a week filled with evening meetings or one of us parents is working late.  It seems we never have a "normal" week; something always happens that we didn't bargain on and that adds constant upheaval to the routine.

Last week in my family it was lice, times two.  Now I have never had lice, but my children seem to pick these nasty bugs up all the time and it really throws the whole household into chaos.  Not only do I have to find extra time every day to nit pick (I now have a visceral experience of this expression and it's surprisingly apt), but I have to gather up almost every linen in the house and haul these over to the laundromat for cleaning, since we have no dryer at home.  The trouble is that in our house almost every minute of every day is already accounted for, so when someone gets lice I go crazy trying to figure out how to cram in all the picking and cleaning that I really don't have time for.

And every week it seems there is something like that that happens.  And parents a little further down the road tell me life never really gets any more "normal" or easier to predict.  Older parents tell me they are still surprised by what family life drops on them, week by week: children in tumultuous romances, children messing up jobs, children making choices the older parent never would have made; there's always something.

Thank goodness.  It means we're surrounded by people who need us, people to love.  It means we have something to do, which is better than nothing.  Our relationships gives us a reason to get up every day.  I know I'd be unhappy without my family, lice and all.  But I could stand for them to get it a little less often!