127 Years of Parenting...

I have been parenting for over 127 years and I can prove it!

Parenting is a joy, but a lot of hard work and for a very long time. I would never really want to compare it with a prison sentence--but for the sake of the analogy, here I go...

A person commits, let us say, robbery. He may get a 10 year jail sentence from the judge. But what if he committed the robbery using a gun and a innocent bystander gets in the way of his escape so he takes that bystander as a hostage.

He goes to trial and he is convicted for three offenses:

10 year for robbery
10 years for using a deadly weapon in a crime
10 years for kidnapping

Now he is thinking, I will be in jail for 30 years, I will be an old man when I get out. And then, just before the gavel drops, the judge says two words that change everything..." served concurrently." Now he only spends 10 years in jail because he gets to serve his time concurrently.

And that proves that I have parented for 127 years [kids are aged 31, 28, 26, 23, 19]- I have just been serving my time [so to speak] concurrently. And I should get credit for each and every one of those 127 years because each child is so different. So many different scenarios come up with each child, that it only seems fair that some days, if we have 5 children, we should get credit for 5 days of parenting.

So, for any moms and dads who feel really worn out or feel like sometimes each day can seem many days long [like when everyone has the flu], give yourself credit for more than one day, count one day for each child you have--you are just serving those days concurrently!

Take care,
Jill