A piece of me? That’s a part of it. I think that if you truly believe in yourself, you’ll want to leave a bit of you behind after you die. I’m a complicated person, in that I don’t believe in myself because I think society pretty much disapproves of me. However, I do believe in myself because, by my own standards, I think I am a good person and I am a useful and helpful person.
Similarly, I don’t parent the way some people appear to parent. I think things like spanking and ordering kids around are very harmful. I think I do a better job because I teach them in a different way—a kindly way. So part of parenting for me was showing it can be done in a different way. The proof, of course, is in how the kids turn out.
I also think that making a child is the ultimate creative act: creating new life. It turns out that I’m not a human being, since I can’t do that, at least, not naturally, so overcoming those technical difficulties showed how badly I wanted to become a parent of my own kids.
I think it’s fun. Teaching kids stuff; passing on stuff; interacting with them on a daily basis. It’s a hell of a lot of fun. Very entertaining. Kids are interesting. They have ideas and thoughts and opinions. I love it! Dinnertime is my favorite time. And it’s so enjoyable now that they are teens.
I suffered through the early years when they could talk. I did it from love and hope, but I was not interested then. Just don’t like babies and toddlers all that much. Women seem to enjoy that stage more often than men do, but I did not like it much at all.
Now it’s way cool. I love the little battles and the moments of creativity. I love it all. I don’t know why people don’t like teens that much. Maybe it’s different if you bring the kids up the way I do. But we do not have teen problems, so far. And now, could it be? Is my daughter dating, or just hanging out with a guy she likes? We’ll see. Too early to tell. And I have to wonder if she likes his mother as much or more than she likes him.
What a grand adventure!