As a young
parent you do not get to know the heart and soul your child, when you are
actively raising them … there is no time or reference point to allow you to do
so … Even for the stay at home parent … there is no time, for the lofty
endeavor of knowing the heart and soul of your offspring …
Your time is
spent on teaching civil behavior, manners, educating them, caring for them,
protecting them, making sure they are fed, washed, and healthy … Exposing them
to peers, allowing them to process through stages of life … helping them
understand the ups and downs of life …dealing with their rebellions, and growth
pains we all go through …
Just to make
it through the day as a parent of young children is an accomplishment … your
role is so devise … from chauffeur to medic… way to much to process and get
through … not to mention trying to maintain your own stability and sanity, with
“just give me some P time” …
Then of course
your child … when they are very young will tell you everything … then it stops
dead … they tell you nothing … you somehow morph into this being, incapable of
understanding anything (or at least in the eyes of your child) … every thing
becomes an argument at this age … Hence as a parent, the furthest thing from
your mind is wanting to know your child’s
heart and soul, for they are activity ripping yours out at this time in
their growth and testing your soul!
Then comes the
time of the “child” going away to college or getting their own place or
marrying … They call it the “empty nest
syndrome” … I do not think I looked at it that way … I saw it as … “Shit balls
that was a lot of work being a parent, a freak’n lot of work, now it is done,
it just stops ?” …
Like a race
car or perhaps a thoroughbred who has run a long race … you are all worked up from, the race and
sweaty and if you just stop, the race
car might strip its gears and the thoroughbred will “tangle” and might die …
The race was its heart, it meaning, its goal and now it is over and done with …
you just cannot stop running … or you will die …
Yep that was
me … the race horse … I could not just stop the race … I needed to have a
cooler placed on me and be walked off the track … life was my cooler and time being walked off
the track … I do not have to race anymore …
Hmmm let me
rethink that … maybe the mother of young
children is not the thoroughbred, but the jockey and her child is the one under
saddle being trained to run their race in life … and parents can run their kids hard and fast
… thinking as many horse trainers think “break the spirit of the creature” and
they will train better … Yes I like that
metaphor… it seems more applicable …
Be that as it
may … the older mother, (grandmother) needs not to be trainer, jockey or
thoroughbred … she can stand on the rail and watch the race and the process …
She sees with different eyes and knows from her own jockey days, what works and
what will throw you right off the horse …
