Since when did my three-year-old daughter get a calendar of events for me to manage? In the past three weeks she has gotten five birthday invitations.  Two of them are on the same day. I had to laugh that she has more going on than I do. It makes me happy for her to have birthday parties to attend. It’s a welcome escape to the monotony of any given weekend day. I am baffled that a few of them have stated that we are welcome to drop off our child and leave. Very tempting indeed, but maybe she is too young to be dropped off by herself? I’m not sure.

My daughters are very independent. I wonder whom they get that from? At age two I was down the street playing with other kids until dark. My mom would come to get me after awhile. I guess I have always been an old soul and enjoyed being social with other kids. It does concern me a bit though having independent daughters. My mom said to me years later that perhaps she should have put her foot down more and made me stay at home. All through high school I was rarely home. I spent lunches and after school time with my friends at their homes. I don’t remember much of what went on in our home growing up with two younger siblings during my adolescence because I just wasn’t there. To this day, I struggle with trying to achieve closeness with my younger siblings. I wonder if it’s because of my so-called independence from my teen years?

Thankfully, my kids are 3 and 19 months and I don’t have to worry about them taking off on a regular basis to go play with friends. I do think my daughter has a bit of an obsession with the little boys across the street already. She talks about them all the time. She even pretends to talk to them on the phone. Should her father worry already? He jokingly asked the little four-year old the other day what his intentions were with his daughter. The little boy just stared at my husband while I laughed out loud. But the fear exists of what is to come with daughters. Stay in today, Ronnie, stay in today.

But life as a stay-at-home mom gets busier the older the children become. I have been researching and visiting pre-schools for Georgia, our youngest, over the past two weeks. I am preparing for having a baby and I want her to be in a structured learning environment. This will mean one other drop-off and pick-up for me to make. We also have yet to encounter the world of sports, dance classes, and other extra curriculars. I’m keeping in mind that a mother’s sanity during all this transport is jeopardized until they are at least old enough and responsible enough to drive themselves. So how early do I want to start?

All in the name of well roundedness I’ve seen parents make themselves and their kids crazy. It starts pretty young so I am cognoscente of making good decisions early on and striving to achieve balance rather than perfection in my life and the lives of my children. So for now, we welcome the birthday party invitations and remember that you are only a child once so we are attending the ones we can with bells on.  Oh and my daughter came home today asking if we could go to ballet. Uh-oh, here we go.