Parental Transitioning

The fact that there are many stages of childhood implies there are many stages of parenthood.

Our “children” are now at the stage where we are transitioning from being more of a parent to becoming more of a friend. And this includes becoming friends with their friends.

Having Connor over for dinner is a common occurrence. Because he enjoys my cooking, I’m good with this. The other night, he told me he has become a huge fan of balsamic vinegar since joining the family. Our dinner conversations tend to be fun since he gets a kick out of David. (Dave now has two fans – Connor and Meagan. Though I think Meagan pretends.) The other night, Dave helped him with his fantasy football draft while Nicole and I looked on. Nicole asked how long it was going to take. When I told her until January (speaking from experience), she was a little horrified.

Dave and I recently made a trip up to the Lake to spend the day with Heather and two of her friends. We only spent the day because we were afraid of intruding, but Heather seemed to want us to come up. At dinner that evening, we played Heather’s game of “Pit and Peak”. Jenni’s pit of the day was that we didn’t go with them to the Naswa for a Mudslide. That surprised me and made me laugh. And Lexi, who was over the other night, asked again why we didn’t stay with them longer.

This past Saturday, I ran up to the Lake again for the day (one of many one day trips this summer) to spend time with Meagan and two of her friends – Lea from high school and Stephanie from college. While on the boat, Lea mentioned her mom was her best friend, and I thought how nice that was. (I don’t think I’m at that stage with my kids, but I do think they like me.) I had fun hearing about their jobs, their significant others, their families, and even their dogs (well Steph’s dog). They also drink very adult drinks now, which I am definitely not use to. I also think it’s funny that four of Meagan’s friends (these two as well as Aileen and Maria) read my blog.

Sunday, Lexi was over for a breakfast of iced coffee and fried rice. She asked for my advice on acne and cars, which she promptly ignored. After she left to go car shopping, I got to spend some time with Heather in the hot tub. When I told her I was going to scrub the tiles while we were in there, she told me “No.” So we had beer and wine instead.

This is a fun stage. The only problem I have is biting my tongue when I want to make a “mom” comment. Nicole has at least another year of putting up with me slipping in that regard.

And then there are the new friends that David made in Charlotte this past weekend.

There are also different stages of marriage.