Wednesday, February 23, 2005

The Easy Night

It's not often when this happens, but tonight was one of the easiest nights I've had with the kids, being solo at that. Alex never once threw a tantrum, and everything went along pretty smoothly. I understand when he gets bored, or when Zoe gets tired or hungry, but when Alex doesn't have any temper issues, Parenthood actually seems kinda fun.

I was in the car coming home today and I was thinking about the sacrifices of parenthood. It's really something when you become a parent - the things that you have to give up for your children. By the time Alex and Zoe are 18, my wife spent about 40 years of her life being a parent. Even my Mom, who basically left her family in Malaysia and Singapore so that my brother and I could have a chance at a better education. All these huge sacrifices that parents have to make every day in order to give their children the best possible opportunity. It's just astounding.

I think about my wife's ex, who handily hands off his daughter to any guy who shows interest in her without any proper judgment, and I really wonder what kind of parent could do that. Well, the answer is fairly obvious. You can give away things, or in this case, your daughter, if she has little value to you. He basically made his older daughter get married because they were living together, and luckily that worked out okay - but still. He doesn't value his daughters enough. Elaine made a brief joke about me dancing with Zoe on her wedding day, and I couldn't even think about it. This little girl is my little girl, and it'll have to be a pretty decent guy to win her heart. Think I'm tough with JL, I'll be gangbusters on Zoe.

So Alex has picked up this habit, and I'm entirely to blame for this - but when we watch the Simpsons on TV, which has two shows in the evening because of syndication, the part when Homer exits the car, says "D'oh!" when Bart cycles past him, and then "AHHHH!" when Marge drives into the garage after him... Well, Alex evidently does the "AHHHH!" part now. So, we'll be watching and when the moment is close, he'll always prematurely go, "AHHHH!" for Homer, and then once again after it happens on TV. I happen to think that this is the most adorable thing, though I can hear my Mom frowning at me for letting him watch so much TV.

AHHHH!

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