Like many people, I go through each day with the goal to learn something new: a new expression/word, a new fact, the title of a new book. These experiences and -more importantly- how we make use of them shape who we are. In other words: They shape our very own story.
As writers, I think we go a tiny step further: We think about how the things we learn, the people we meet and the experiences we have can be woven into the stories we dream up. We keep scrutinizing our surroundings for little details –a scent, a sound, a visual we can use to overcome a writer\’s block or to come up with an entirely new story.
Sometimes though, you experience something for the very first time, something that opens up entirely new possibilities and provides insights and perspectives you have never been able to get before. That\’s what happened to me a few weeks ago, when my friend and fellow writer Timewalkerauthor came to visit me with his two kids (six & seven years old). Although I\’ve had two Babysittlings (thank my tired brain for that word) years ago, I have never had kids in my house for more than a few hours, let alone for almost five days in a row. I am not a parent myself, and I am not exactly the biggest fan of children; despite the fact that both my mom and grandmother were kindergarten teachers, I don\’t think I carry that particular gene in me. Trust me, if my mom read this, she would agree. In fact, she is probably the only mother that discourages her daughter to have kids. But I digress.
Being around Emma and Ethan has given me the opportunity to experience a tiny(!) fraction of what parents deal with on a daily basis. First and foremost, there is a a lot of stuff that made me want to pull out my hair:
Kid: \”I don\’t want to eat the rest of my dinner.\”
Me: \”Then you\’ll have it tomorrow for lunch.\”
Kid: \”I will NOT!\”
Me: \”Oh yes, you will, because you won\’t get anything else. There are kids who would be HAPPY to have this food because they never have enough food and are always hungry!\”
(I refrained from throwing the \”starving kids in Africa\”-card … hey, I really don\’t know how much kids that age can comprehend).
Kid is either in a pouting or tantrum-stage at this point … luckily, my friend backed up my resolve, with the result that the food was indeed being eaten the next day. Suck it!
On the other hand though, I had some truly amazing moments with the kids, and it made me realize that the effort is probably (somewhere, somehow) worth it. I can already hear most parents protesting: \”OF COURSE IT\’S TOTALLY WORTH IT, HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY DOUBT THAT?!\”, to which I can only say \”Baby steps, everybody, baby steps.\” And whereas I doubt that I will be working on some parenting or a children\’s book anytime soon, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to live a different life from the one I am used to, at least for a little while as it greatly expanded my horizon and will help me to see things from a different perspective.
Thanks, Emma & Ethan, for a truly sweet time (and thanks, Timewalkerauthor, for reminding me that -for right now- I enjoy my life without kids :P).