Open letter to my parents, which could be to YOUR parents, too.

 
Dear Mom and Dad,

I think you know how much we three kids love you. And respect you.

But, too, becoming a parent, as we are all about to be (in what? Nine weeks, Jeffrey?) it becomes OH-so-clear what you really do and want and fight for your child(ren.) Our appreciation and reverence of you grows.

Thank you not for just giving us the stuff we needed, but also so much of what we wanted. When we were little, I bet we never thought about how much dance class or soccer or other activities cost in the way of money or time. And honestly, that's appropriate, I think. We just knew you "let us" do stuff that was cool and fun. As a parent now, with a beloved boy in kindergarten and taking kung fu and being on a soccer team and attending church activities and singing in the choir, I have a much greater appreciation for the money that was earned and budgeted for these things, and for the time it took to ferry us back and forth, and in many cases, to be present while we practiced or played. Thank you. Thank you for giving us those amazing opportunities, over and over for YEARS, and for setting that kind of parenting example. I've seen Dana (and Keith) do that for their girls for some time now, and Eric and I are following suit with Ziggy, as Jeffrey and Laura will no doubt do for their daughter.

Thank you for retrieving forgotten soccer balls and orthodonture, for driving us to field trips, packing lunches, spending tedious amounts of time in meetings as volunteers and as earners. Thank you for allowing me to buy the special cafeteria lunch when it was a fall holiday one (I'm actually teary thinking of how much that meant to me at the time, and the fact that Ziggy came home last week and asked me to give him some money, please, to try out buying a lunch.) Thank you for miles to and from Miss Mortimer's Dance Studio, for Burger Chef and Jeff on the evenings of recitals, for rising early to get us to Sunday School and Sunrise Service to serve French Toast. For sacrificing your own wants for ours when the occasion warranted it.

We had a really good childhood. And we had the good fortune to know we'd always be provided for. Thank you for helping US be better parents than we'd have been without your example, which continues to this day, of love and generosity and a sense of fun.


I love you both so very very much, and that love expands and becomes ever more layered as I myself mother my own child.


XXX
Your Daughter, the oldest one