<p>^^Me too, VaBluebird…nearest relatives were a five hour car ride away. I was so jealous that my Mom did so much babysitting for my nieces who lived only an hour away from her. I can count the times we had a babysitter on my fingers and have some leftover.</p>
<p>Not sure if someone had posted this one…stepping on Legos in the middle of the night while making a bathroom run!</p>
<p>Or how about being awakened in the middle of the night by those horrible battery operated toys that friends/family would give the kids? And you could never find the damn toy to turn it off?</p>
<p>^We had one of those go off in a box that hadn’t been opened in years…and that was under a bunch of other boxes in an inaccessible closet.</p>
<p>Here’s one for parents of girls: trying to get Barbies out of their awful blister packs and twist-tie restraints on Christmas. Or, having to have Barbies in the house in the first place.</p>
<p>I agree with so much of what has already been said but other than the lack of sleep, ear infections and stomach viruses, conjunctivitis, other children coming to play at our house who had zero attention span and whose parents never picked them up on time, I really loved being the mom of my two little girls.We have such wonderful memories. I loved that I was home those years and participated in school activities and was there at 3 PM pick-up.</p>
<p>When they got older and I returned to work when younger d was in second grade and older d in fifth grade, the guilty working mother issues and the child care arrangements with babysitters and car pools were difficult times, the middle school years were problematic with the whole social scene of the bar/bat mitzvah year of being left out, or leaving others out and the endless negotiating with other parents about the 2 AM Saturday night pick-up, my kids attending services when others were not doing so, the endless shopping for clothes for bar/bat mitzvah and then teenage drama years, especially the 11:30 PM fights about what was being worn to school the next day and who was wearing it, the midnight shows on school nights for the new Harry Potter movie that naturally all friends were going to, issues with going out, curfew and driving. I think my greatest fear as a parent was the day older d had her license and drove off with younger d as a passenger. I also liked that our house was the house that their friends felt comfortable in. I also liked when younger d’s sleepaway camp friends would come for sleepover to see her perform for four years as lead in high school show. I never actually minded all the driving back and forth to camp friends sleepovers in NJ from LI and the sweet sixteen carpooling, until they were old enough to manage public transportation/ driving on their own.
It all goes by in the blink of an eye… even those endless Sunday night… I forgot that I need poster board for a project, I forgot that I need index cards, I forgot that I said you would bake blueberry muffins for the 4th grade Thanksgiving holiday celebration, I forgot my instrument in school that I need to bring to the middle school in an hour, I lost my school calculator the day before the 8th grade math regents… and so on and so on… and so on…</p>
<p>Sticky stair railings, drawer pulls, door nobs . . .</p>
<p>Making Halloween costumes, especially when they changed what they wanted to be over and over again.</p>
<p>Colic. And Wee Sing videos.</p>
<p>That panicked feeling when you were late getting to day care and you knew you would be paying the $5/minute penalty - not conducive to safe driving!</p>
<p>I don’t miss having to manage D’s thick, curly hair.</p>
<p>I don’t miss S waking up with pseudo-night-terrors.</p>
<p>I don’t miss poopy underwear during toilet training (I just threw them away)</p>
<p>I don’t miss the cruelty of middle school girls.</p>
<p>Wee Sing… I hated Sally and her red dress.</p>
<p>I also do not miss the 100 Days of School projects… how would you like to assist gluing 100 paper clips, buttons, cheerios… on poster board. I am not the craftiest mom around so when my d’s had to make fabric book covers for their siddurs (prayer books) in Hebrew school, it was not fun. Older d selected velvet. Who was I to know that velvet is not a good fabric, especially when you want to decorate the cover with the markers that create raised puffy letters, in Hebrew no less. Younger d not as picky… blue felt was fine with her.</p>
<p>I don’t miss the Sunday morning fights about Hebrew school. I didn’t blame my kid at all. It was horrible.</p>
<p>I picked him up once and asked what he had learned. He told me all they did was watch The Prince of Egypt. I was really p!$$ed that we were paying hundreds of dollars so he could sit and watch a movie he had already seen.</p>
<p>Reading this thread is making me miss the childhood years even more! I don’t think that was the intention, but tears come just from the triggering of memories you all have conjured up. </p>
<p>Does anyone else feel like if they could do it all over again, they would be much more philosophical and relaxed about the whole child-rearing enterprise? If I have any regrets, it’s that I wish I could do it all over again, knowing it would all turn out ok, and that even if it didn’t, it would still be ok.</p>
<p>Ditto on the working mom guilt. And being so tired because I tried to be supermom anyway.</p>
<p>The worst for me was the constant search for childcare, especially in the summers. And hearing my friends talking about how relaxing summers were for their families.</p>
<p>Yes . . . so tired . . . so tired . . . .</p>
<p>I had huge working mom guilt, but if I had it to do over again, I’d still work. It’s turned out to be necessary, so I’m glad I didn’t miss a step.</p>
<p>I hated waited in the pediatrician’s office for a LONG time on many occasions.
I probably should have switched pediatricians along time ago, but we still go to the same one and my kids are 17 and 19.</p>
<p>moonchild, I agree. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and don’t think I would do much differently. </p>
<p>We are all going to be awesome grandparents! :)</p>
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<p>You nailed it. Consider yourself validated :)</p>
<p>I don’t miss potty training. I thought I’d be sending S2 to college in diapers.</p>
<p>I don’t miss rec sports leagues with weeknight practices and games all day Saturday. I was so glad when my Ss reached middle school and their sports practices were right after school. </p>
<p>I do miss Cub Scout Day Camp, though. That was a blast!</p>
<p>I don’t miss all-day wrestling meets in the gym of a school an hour and a half away from our town. I don’t miss searching their concession stand for something – anything! – that was less than 70% transfats. I don’t miss holding my breath as S1 or S2 (they both did it) remained motionless on the mat for longer than ten seconds. I don’t miss visiting the ER when they separated their shoulders (they both did it).</p>
<p>And I don’t miss knowing when they play rugby. For that, they’re now on their own.</p>
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<p>I was a den mother which was kind of fun but those Pack Meetings? I never left one without a headache. And the crappy popcorn which just got conned into buying again.</p>
<p>@VeryHappy - I’m on what may be my very last year of wrestling, barring the possibility of a college scholarship. H wrestled in HS and it was his favorite sport. We moved to an area that has junior wrestling and he was delighted. S1 wrestled from 1st through 5th grade, then quit … DH still hasn’t gotten over it. S2 started when he was 4 and is now a senior in HS, and I’ll be damned if H didn’t just hand me a list of names for a wrestling e-mail he wants to send out. I’ve done just about all the things you mentioned (including cleaning pizza out of a urinal after a match we hosted), but no ER visits, thank goodness. And our concession stands usually have veggies and ranch dip.
@1moremom - I definitely don’t miss the popcorn!</p>