Hello all. So I am back to writing my Friday posts all about being a Stay at Home Dad.
Last night I had a strange thought. I was getting in the shower and there were no naked barbies in the tub. Let me tell you, there is a creepiness that Mattel never intended with a Barbie doll that is your daughter playing with them in the bath, and subsequently leaving them there. Without clothes. Why? “Well Daddy, she can’t bath with her clothes on.” was the logic from my oldest daughter, though she would probably deny that now.
Playing with the barbies in the bath would not be so bad, it is when I would go to take a shower and there were 10 of the things naked in the tub. Made me feel quite creepy to tell the truth. But last night there were no naked barbies. Sure I had to clean up some hot wheels cars and a boat, but no barbies. I had almost a nostalgic twang before the elation crept in.
My kids are growing up. My youngest daughter is almost 9, and she rarely plays in the bath anymore, and when she does, she cleans up the toys. The older kids just shower. It is only my 4 year old son who has the bulk of the bath toys, and his are not barbie.
Mainly, I start thinking about how my kids are growing up, and the things that we are losing, or more correctly, just done with. We start cleaning out things to send to charity, and many of the toys that we have accumulated over the years are not relevant or just not being played with anymore. We don’t want to hang on to these, we don’t want to move them again. We have thought about saving some for grandkids to play with in the future, but, looking at it, why bother? By the time we have grandkids and unpack these wonderful (?) toys that we have saved, the plastic will be brittle, pieces will be lost, and there will be so many other new toys out there that it doesn’t make sense to save anything.
Some other things have gone away as well. My favorite thing to get rid of was the diaper genie. Now, the diaper pail is a great invention, and the diaper genie is great because it holds in some of the smell, but I’ll tell you, the day we thew that thing in the garbage 2 years ago I danced a jig. We have finally now got rid of all diapers and pull ups. Some days I am not sure if that is a good thing or not, it is easier to toss a pull up than wash out tiny underwear, but….I have a whole other post about potty training coming up.
In the end, there are some pangs of nostalgia for the things that we had to have when the kids were babies and now don’t need anymore. There are strange feelings when you realize your daughter, your little girl, the one you held most of the first night when she was born the day before yesterday (now 14 years) now needs deoderant, or a bra….don’t get me started. Or when your son starts to leak body odor like an Exxon tanker, and it is time for his deoderant. Or when it is finally time to stop helping your kids bathe because they are just too old and it is not appropriate.
Yes there will be new things. in about a year and a half, there will be a drivers license for my oldest, some pretty significant church stuff for my son, and school starting for the youngest. Holy cow, I am getting old. But I wouldn’t trade this for the world.
Until later,
-Justin
