2 posts tagged “friends”

My Seattle friend, on becoming friends with someone he used to dislike:

One, or perhaps both of us, has become less conceited and self righteous (I'm thinking him, because if anything I think I'm worse).

A friend of mine asked me the other day, 'Do you think you want kids?'

I have no response to this question, which at this life-stage feels like being asked, 'Do you want a hip replacement?'

But it did remind me of this anecdote, which sorta sums up my feeling on housekids at the minute:

On the afternoon in question, the girls snack on tubes of yogurt, which they will now eat only if they come frozen just so--even though they aren't meant to be frozen. I walk in, note them squabbling madly about who gets the grape yogurt and who the strawberry, see the pools growing in Tabitha's eyes, take her in my arms and ask, "Do you two have any idea how lucky you are to have a mom who takes such good care of you?"

Dixie, preoccupied with the Battle for the Grape One, does not hear me, but Quinn looks up for a moment, stares at us, and says, "There's lots of good moms."

This is exactly the kid of lawyerlet fuckspawn I was as a child, and popular accounts of parenting tend to edit out the teetering hell that parenting must be at least 80 percent of the time.

I also had the privilege of meeting my good (American) friend's parents this weekend, and had the following dinner exchange:

Me, alco-rambling to friend: The problem with our generation is that we were never forced to do anything. Our childhoods were a long traipse through hippie-topia, unfettered by consequence or responsibility.
Friend's mom: [silence] ... Well, we did the best we could.