In Twenty Years

Ok. If you're reading this and you have young kids of your own, I want you to do something. Picture them in about 20 years or so. If they could be doing anything you want, what would it be? Quick, pick the first thing that comes to mind.

Here's my answer to this question. In my perfect future for my kids, Alec ends up playing piano on Broadway and Chase ends up scoring touchdowns for the Pittsburgh Steelers. (I guess it could be the other way around, but with Alec's two left feet I'm pretty sure that when it comes to sports he takes after Chad, who was traumatized for life during a t-ball game when he was playing first base, the other team hit the ball and Chad ran the bases. Plus, based on Alec's two months of piano lessons resulting in the ability to play Funny Little Man, Going Up Bounce Bounce AND Hot Cross Buns at the age of four, I feel much more confident in his musical talents.)

This future for my kids would be great... I could get free (front row) tickets to Broadway shows AND have free (awesome) seats at every Steelers game. My kids would both be considered super successful, and I would get some pretty good perks as well. Of course in my fantasy dream, Alec would land his first audition and Chase would never get hurt on the field.

But then I got to thinking... that's what I would want for my kids. That doesn't mean that that's what they will want for themselves. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that all I really want for my kids is for them to be happy. That's all I really want for them now, 20 years from now, 50 years from now, etc...

Honestly, I really don't care what they end up doing. They could be teachers, carpenters, lawyers, fishermen, car salesmen, really anything. Heck, they could be ballerinas or bank robbers for all I care, as long as it makes them happy! (Ok, maybe the bank robber part wouldn't really be part of my dream.) But I seriously don't care what they end up doing, as long as it makes them happy.

I don't know about other parents, but I know I spend a lot of time trying to make my kids happy. I play game after game of "Go Fish;" I laugh at jokes that make no sense; I exhaust myself by running lap after lap around the house chasing (or being chased by) my boys; I spend more time than I care to admit stuffed in closets, crammed under beds and crouching in bathtubs in riveting games of hide-and-seek.

I don't do all this because of the thrill of not knowing if another person has a whale card in their hands or because I have a secret love of hiding in dark, stuffy places. I do this because it makes my kids happy. And if my boys are happy, that makes me happy.

Maybe I'm being selfish. Afterall, seeing them unhappy causes me to feel their pain. I can't stand seeing my children hurt or sick; I hate the feeling of having to take away a toy, even though I know I'm teaching them a lesson; I cry inside every time they're disappointed. And as their mother, all I want to do is make things better. I just want them to be happy.

So after all this thinking, I've changed my dream for them. In my revised answer to my original question, Alec is still on Broadway and Chase is still at Heinz Field, but they are both HAPPY with what they're doing.