When our son was a baby, we’d stuff him into his stroller in the evening and take a walk. Sometimes our walks were cut short buy a crabby, crying baby. Other times, we were allowed the luxury of a brisk pace, often arguing about whose turn it was to push the cumbersome Peg Perego stroller. Usually my husband ended up with stroller duty. It was only fair, after all, I was sporting and trying to balance a giant butt and thighs and I’m not good at multi tasking.
One mild evening, we were out walking with the stroller and crying, screaming baby. Our other kids were probably with their other parents because, at that point, they were too young to be left home alone, even for short periods of time.
We ran into our neighbors (not literally) Ed and Stephanie (hi guys). They were out enjoying an evening stroll, just the two of them and maybe they had their dog along with them. Their kids, all teenagers, probably alone back at their house. They took in our situation with a “haha, better you than us” laugh. Then, Stephanie might have had a moment of pity for us, after we complained to her how jealous we were of their alone time. She said something to the effect of “someday, this will be you.”
We smiled and stared blankly at them.
Those words did not compute.
We didn’t believe her for a minute. Because, our immediate seemed like it would never end.
Inevitably, it did. It happened.
Except now, we never take walks anymore because my husband is getting old and falling apart but that is another post.
BUT. If we wanted to, we could take walks completely kid-less. We can leave the house without kids, as long as a couple of them are home to watch the 6 year old.
We are now them.
Well, the them from a few years ago.
Because today, on Facebook…she just announced to me that they are officially “empty nesters”. Their kids, after they clean their rooms thoroughly, are off to college. And she and Ed are running off and leaving no forwarding address.
They can have sex in every room of their house and not worry about who is watching or listening to activities. Unless, of course, we have Peeping Tom type neighbors. Or bloggers who are looking for a juicy post, nevermind…
They can go out of town, whenever they want.
Their lives have now become more of their own. Sort of.
Am I jealous of them?
No! (ok, well…kinda)
I KNOW how fast it goes. I’m fully aware of it. Pregnancy to teenagers (and two marriages) happened in a blink of an eye.
Before we know it, we’ll be in their shoes again.
And those shoes, the ones parents wear when their kids go off to college…are WAY more expensive than those hot Christian Louboutin shoes I’ve been eyeballing.
I need to start saving my money now to afford the next stage of my life.
Christian Louboutin will have to wait because time sure won’t.
Unless…does he make reasonably priced and comfy running shoes?
I’m getting ready to take my baby to Kindergarten this morning and I don’t even want to think about an empty nest.
Jennifer´s last blog post ..Big Changes
I remember in 2004, when my first child was born, hearing, “It goes so fast,” over and over again. During all those sleepless nights and endless diapers, I didn’t believe it one bit.
Now she’s going to first grade in two days and it all happened in one millisecond.
As you know.
Also, have you looked into the Louboutin Loafer collection?
San Diego Momma´s last blog post ..Why I Don’t Work Out
It does go fast! All around me I’ve seen friends (IRL and bloggers) carting their kids off to college – and it kills me, because that will be me in two very short years. But I’m sure once I get over the initial horror, I’ll settle in and enjoy that empty-nest. Maybe….
Gigi´s last blog post ..Warning – This is going to be random