<p>I don’t miss having to overpack and pray the kids would be angels on the many flights we took from the time they were 6 months old. We lucked out that they were great travelers. </p>
<p>Don’t miss shuttling them to all their sporting events. Don’t miss the tears over them feeling left out of cliques. Don’t miss conferences with school about their frequent and prolonged absences. </p>
<p>Am loving them as young adults and all the flexibility they and we have now!!! :)</p>
<p>Did mostly enjoy the kids growing up too, just am having a lot of fun now.</p>
<p>“Oh, the last minute poster board emergencies” - Ha,. I’d forgotten all about that. </p>
<p>I sometimes miss having little kids. But yesterday I watched a mom at Costco trying to stash her food and diapers into the back of the minivan that was already crammed with stroller and baby gear. Don’t miss that. Or many of the other things listed in this thread. But I do miss having the kids under our roof with us.</p>
<p>Have been cleaning out closets and the old toy room. Am leaving several bags out for a donation pick-up tomorrow. But I pulled back out some of the Little Tikes toys and Mr. Potatohead. Just not ready to give them up. I am, however, HAPPY to get rid of the magnes set with a million metal pieces. They were everywhere.</p>
<p>I don’t miss when they were toddlers and would walk over to me and rub their noses on my pants as if I were one large handkerchief! My clothing is happier now… Except when they borrow something that is in their size too.</p>
<p>The non-stop chatter, on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on</p>
<p>I don’t miss the letters from the truant officer because my D spent 20 days in the hospital in 9th and 10th grade each, as well as missing several doctor excused days in 11th grade. Those days were excused absences, she was an A student and always made up her work ontime. How come we had to be threatened with legal action and she had open campus priveleges revoked?</p>
<p>All the plastic crap we bought for them (toys, dolls, Barbie doll house, Hot Wheels race tracks) then later on threw away (just adding to the landfill somewhere).</p>
<p>I have to say I gave away Felicity (D’s American Girl Doll) with all her expensive, well-made accessories (canopy bed, armoire, violin and music stand) to a neighbor’s daughter and she is “over the moon” according to the mom. Glad they got a 2nd life.</p>
<p>I definitely don’t miss what my husband and I now refer to as the “nightly crib crawl”. When my youngest son was an infant, he was a great sleeper once he fell asleep, but he hated to be left alone while awake in the crib. So I used to sit on a cushion next to the crib and hold his hand through the slats until he fell asleep. Then so he wouldn’t wake up I would crawl out of the room on my hands and knees. Sometimes I made it and sometimes he would catch me and howl. I can’t even believe I was reduced to this.</p>
<p>S2 used to wake up when we put him in the crib because the sheets were cooler than my arms. We started putting a heating pad set on low in his bed and it solved the problem.</p>
<p>Trying to get my youngest to take any kind of liquid medicine. Cajoling, bribing and eventually physical constraint would ALMOST get me there and then…she would spit it out.</p>
<p>Bajamm, our private school actually told us D would not be allowed to return for SR year because they decided all our kids’ absences were unexcused,despite MD notes and MD reports from national and local experts! Do NOT miss that and refuse to donate to that school, even tho they regularly send us stuff!</p>
<p>For all the negatives, I just recall so much happiness. I was fortunate to have one, after 5 losses. Even the croup, the chicken pox, are mixed memories. Ex- chicken pox, and son waking me up, asking if I could make him an oatmeal bath (Aveeno). I’m falling asleep on bathmat, and he’s keeping me awake! He didn’t want to leave that tub.</p>
<p>Then there was the mystery of how a 1 y.o. could get out of a crib, and end up in my bed. No one, not au pair nor pediatrician, could figure this out. Pediatrician finally said to just let him sleep on a mattress on floor. When I read about Bean, in the Ender series, I thought back to the worm. I also had built-in bookshelves, and he would climb to top shelf. Now that I think back, the constant worry he’d get into trouble was a relief as he got older.</p>
<p>Biggest fear was child molestation, which happened to my bookkeeper’s son at a very fancy Boston center. </p>
<p>I am so ready for a grandchild. There is nothing like the smell and the feel of a little one coddling with you.</p>
<p>I don’t miss monthly trips to the ER due to D’s out of control asthma- which resulted in a hospitalization at least twice a year. One time, when she was 4, her pulse ox was 84 and she was drifting in and out of consciousness and when conscious, she said “I think I’m dying momma”. Scared the daylights out of me. </p>
<p>I don’t miss the lack of sleep, although I’m still having some sleep deprivation issues thanks to menopause now. </p>
<p>I don’t miss the mess- toys everywhere- big toys that took up all the space- books all over the place always. I don’t miss having to get them all bundled up and then strapped into car seats. It was so liberating when they could put on their coats and shoes, get in the car and buckle their seat belts without my help at all. I don’t miss having to cart tons of stuff everywhere- diaper bag, stroller, portable high chair, pack n play- yikes. </p>
<p>I treasured every phase but wasn’t sad to any phase go either. Even now, as difficult as it is to face an empty nest in September, I have to admit that having my daughter away at college hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. She is still very connected and I feel like I know what’s happening in her life and very much enjoy talking to her. I miss her because she is far away and it’s been two months since I’ve seen her, with another month to go yet, but it’s ok. I love who she has become. I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about my son- and hopefully, finally, catch up on my sleep!</p>
<p>I don’t miss hearing a voice say “Momma?” knowing that the next words would be something someone wanted me to do for them. It used to happen probably 50 times a day.</p>
<p>Give it 10 more years, BarnardMom. By then you might miss that voice asking you to do things for her. (My D was a college freshman 10 years ago. She is a first-year family medicine resident this fall. What a difference a decade makes.)</p>
<p>This thread must have been on my mind, because the other day I actually said, “Super-dee-duper!”</p>
<p>HarvestMoon, I used to do the “crib creep.” Once D was asleep, I’d v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y tiptoe out of her room. I had to be careful because there were a lot of creaky floorboards, and if one cracked, she’d wake up. I remember feeling so silly, creeping around like a burglar in my own home. But what a relief if I successfully crossed the threshold!</p>
<p>I don’t miss the parents of their teammates! There always seemed to be one who was certain Junior was a future Olympian. And then there was the dad coach…appreciated, but often very biased. </p>
<p>Traveling teams…ugh, the worst! Lots of parents reliving their missed opportunities and frustrated jock syndrome through their kids. Move on already! Although, I must admit, that when my kids traveled for a sport that included a boys and a girls team, I met one of my now best friends (I only had boys, she had a girl). We got together in an attempt to get away from everyone else when staying in hotels far from home. Our husbands hit it off and we have some really great memories of traveling for sports competitions. Our kids are off to college now but we still get together and enjoy each others company.</p>