The Old Barn

Being a parent is not what I expected. I grew up with my mother nearby most of the time and my father around occasionally, busy as he was in other pastures, so I thought that life as a parent was simply a matter of sharing the outdoors with my children. I guess I never thought about the times when my mother had to be angry with me in order to protect me from dangers I would wander into without knowing.

Now I'm a parent. I have a few children near me. Every child is unique and different from the other one. Seeing my peers as all different when we were growing up is not the same as seeing your children all different from one another because you don't spend time keeping your peers on a safe path to adulthood.

As a parent, I don't have a one size fits all way to raise my kids. One of my sons likes to run as fast as he can, never looking where he's going. One daughter always stays close to me no matter where I go. The rest of the children have personalities somewhere in between.

Fortunately, we all agree on one thing. We like the old barn. Inside the barn, we're free from the cold and the heat. The smell of hay fills our nostrils with delight. A few bats and owls have used the barn through the years. Mice and rats come and go.

I talked with a coworker who'd come from a farm far away. She said that our life here is special. Not all of us get the same treatment elsewhere.

I couldn't imagine another life. What is there to want? We're safe from large predators. We have big fields to ourselves. We provide milk for our children and another set of funny-sized creatures. We provide and are provided for.

Although adulthood is not what I expected, I enjoy being an adult. I am happy to learn new behaviours because I am happy with who I was and who I am. I don't always know what to do when my children get out of hand but with practice I am discovering I have capabilities I didn't know were in me.

Let the children bounce up and down and prance around while they're young. The joy of being alive, especially when new, is a joy to explore. With time, we and they find other new joys like the taste of new food or a warm day when the weather's normally cold.