Its Own Reward

This week, D told me that he wasn't sure he wanted to be a parent when he grew up, because it looks really hard to him. 

"You're always tired and we make work for you to do all the time, plus you have a job.  I just think it looks really hard."

After I had a moment of being ashamed of myself for making my boys think they are a burden and that my life is crap because I'm a parent, I told him that yes, parenting is hard work. But it has one fabulous, built-in reward: the children. 

My rewards:

• A boy who loves to visit with me, to sit on the sofa at night and just chat.  About what's going on with friends, his weird thoughts, his dreams (not aspirations, mind you -- long-winded descriptions of his nighttime adventures.  Payback for my own childhood, I guess...), contemplations on the cosmos, fears, hopes...  I know that it won't always be like this.  Someday soon, he'll grow up into a teenager and I'll miss these talks.  So this is my reward, being paid forward.
• A boy who wakes up in the morning and smiles and says he slept "great!" and sits up and says "You're beautiful today, Mom."

• Good grades and good health, even if maybe not always good manners.  (That's my fault, I know...)
• Creative minds growing in my home.  Such fantastic drawings and stories being made!  Although, when they are making them up together, they always end up in some idiotic song or scatalogical humor.  But that's part of the Boy Charm, right?

• Boys who understand that when you pee somewhere other than right into the water, that you need to clean it up right then.  (You're welcome, Future Daughters-In-Law)
• A boy who tells me that the reason I'm the Best Mom In The Universe is because I cook him delicious food, just the way he likes it.  And he doesn't like anything.
• A pair of boys who love each other, and aren't afraid to show it.  They pass each other in school and say "Hi" and even hug if they can. 

And today I got the sweetest note from Mom about my kids, and maybe that's a different - also very wonderful - kind of reward: knowing that the mother you respect, who raised some fairly fabulous kids of her own (cough, cough...), thinks your kids are pretty great, too.