Parenthood and the Stream of Consciousness

May 7, 2016 by JoAnna 10 Comments

Being a parent is one of the toughest jobs around. It might just be the toughest, because it’s never really done. A few quotes come to mind, though I’m not going to look up who said them. I’m just going to give them to you:

“The days are long, but the years are short.” Someone told me this after my second baby was born. It’s true. She’s going to be 23 years old in less than two weeks. It seems like only yesterday……

“Having a child is like having a piece of your heart forever walking around outside your body.” I might not have quoted that exactly.  This one hit home for me when my kids each started school, and when they became teenagers, and when they moved out of the house. Even though things are more peaceful now, I still worry about them.

“Raising a teenager is like trying to nail Jello to a tree.” I have no idea where this comes from, but it was helpful to read. It made me  feel a little less alone. I got to thinking: is it possible to nail Jello to a tree? Because anything is possible. So, I imagine creating a platform to put the Jello on and nailing the Jello to the tree after putting it on the platform which would be attached to the tree somehow. But I would not really want to nail anything to a tree, because ouch! I love trees. Of course it’s a hypothetical analogy. I suppose  if the Jello was dried up and turned into solid Jello, you could nail it to a tree. But then, would it still be JELLO?  And where was I going with this?

It is possible to raise a teenager. Teenagers, and children in general, can be lots of fun. Like when my daughter taught me those songs by Pink and Evanescence and shared her dark, silly humor with me. With teenagers, it helps to balance out the hard times with fun times. I’m proud of my outside-the-box adult children, even though, blah, blah, blah. (Letting go of the even though.)

Whether you’re a parent of a human, a parent of a dog, or cat, or a parent of yourself, (because sometimes we need to re-parent ourselves) being a parent is hard work. Being a mother is hard work. So be nice to your mother on mother’s day and every day. Oh, and my mother is an angel in heaven.

(Damn you, stream of consciousness! Did we really have to go there?)

I love you, Mom. Thank you for loving me for all those years. Especially the ones when the Jello would not stay on the tree.

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was: “apparent/a parent.” If you want to join in, visit:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/05/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-716/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!