By Janice Carmac
From: News Record

One morning while waiting with my two children, ages 2 and 5, for our kitty to get her rabies vaccination, I heard the routine comments I frequently get from older parents.


“I remember when my children were that little,” a middle-age woman told me as her companion smiled in agreement. “They were so much fun.”

She said something else, something about her kids now being unappreciative teenagers that she’d left home in bed, but I didn’t quite catch it all.

I was too busy shielding the other cats from my nosy offspring. For some reason, the kids felt it was their duty to visit all the pet carriers and further alarm the already frightened felines.

I tried to make my usual empathetic response. “Wow, I can’t imagine how hard it must be to have teens,” I murmured.

But then I became distracted by 2-year-old Harmony investigating the veterinarian’s pet food supply and 5-year-old Zoe plundering my purse for gum.

Later, as I was cutting gum out of my hair (Zoe did find the gum) and allowing the stress hormones released at the vet’s office to ease out of my bloodstream, I thought about these remarks that folks always seem obliged to make while my children run amok.

I’ll be holding a squirming Harmony and trying to keep an eye on Zoe when someone will sidle up to me, observe my children’s charms and reminisce about the easy days of parenting.

They’ll sigh and let me know just how much they wish their progeny was dripping nasal secretions on their clothes again. Then, as Harmony wiggles my shirt up to Janet Jackson heights, the parents will glide away to chat peacefully with other mature adults and sip hot coffee.

Meanwhile, I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or just pull my top down.

Why do the parents of teens always have to imply that these are the oh-so-easy days of parenting? That someday I will wish that my dear, sweet Harmony would urinate on my bare foot again or that my precious Zoe would announce the need for some personal hygiene assistance mid-supper?

Is this as good as it gets?

There must be a slight amnesia that the parents of teenagers undergo. Yes, I can imagine how challenging it must be to live with young adults still waiting for the common-sense fairy to visit them.

But with every few months that pass by in my children’s lives, I find myself enjoying this parenting business more and more.

I like going to baby showers and weddings with Zoe, who can now sit somewhat patiently. I love watching Harmony feed herself and will relish it even more when she can hit her mouth 90 percent of the time.

There are aspects that are harder, of course. I really miss Zoe’s nap time. But the compensations are awfully nice.

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