When I grow elderly…

… I hope that I will have a good relationship with my son.

I was at the doctor’s office yesterday. I see an Endocrinologist every six months to monitor my Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (it’s an autoimmune disorder that causes an underactive thyroid). While I was waiting (for 45 minutes… but who was counting) to be called back, an elderly woman came in with an older man, who I presumed to be her son (which was later confirmed). She was kind of zany, talking loudly about her dog, then her house, then televisions (her son is going to buy a 42″ LCD by Sony when he needs to replace his).

It was sweet. He was patient with her. Let her talk and stumble between cogent thoughts. Kept up with her ramblings.

I hope that when I’m old and crazy (because you know I’ll be kind of bat-sh*t crazy by then), Kola will be there; to take me to doctor visits where we have to wait an hour to be seen then drive me to the pharmacy to wait for my numerous prescriptions for Alzheimer’s and whatnot; to be patient when I ramble (which he should get plenty of practice in the next 60 years); to listen to me noncoherently chide him for buying a 42″ LCD Plasma whatever-we’ll-have-by-then television/retinal projection unit/space goggles. I’m not worried about the next 20 years – I got that. I’m curious about the next 50. I know that when it comes to it, I’ll do the same for my parents (who may or may not already ramble), and hopefully I can raise Kola equally as well as they did me. I think that the relationship a parent has with their child is most evident after the breach of adulthood. A parent can only do their best, and they can only hope for the same.

♥

The years teach much which the days never knew.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

♥

What do you think? What is the measure of good parenting? What are you aspirations for 50 years from now? Share in the comments or on the FaceBook.

The Pandas’ Top Ten Crunch-osophies

Welcome to the March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Natural Parenting Top 10 Lists

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared Top 10 lists on a wide variety of aspects of attachment parenting and natural living. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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Having a six month old is an exciting time.

Between deciding on which vaccinations he’ll receive, what foods I should be investigating, whose diapers are the best for his growing bum, and what’s for dinner, I am placed with an integral set of tasks ahead. I have been charged with an increasingly-cognizant being, absorbing information, yet unable to recount. Kola has been unresponsive until this point to my talking, reading, noise-making, singing. I can, however, tell he’s been listening. He smacks his lips and clicks his tongue when he wants something, staring it down and clicking more fervently until I figure it out (usually he wants in his Johnny-Jump-Up… crazy kid).

But now that I know that he’s listening… what should I say? We read books. He loves his bright board books, especially in his mouth. He doesn’t seem to mind as I ramble through short stories and novels by some of my favorites. I think he has “read” more Vonnegut than a typical college graduate. I feel that we need to start moving to relevant information, not just recreational speaking and reading. I know he is listening, and I want something good to say. I’m slightly more crunchy than many of my friends (although am considered somewhat soggy to some of the other crunchmasters I am fortunate enough to know). I think it’s best to start these lessons early in life, and with spring shyly peaking around the corner, what better time is there to reflect on the lessons I’d like to impart…

I ♥ My Family: An Introduction

I’ve only been blogging for a very short period of time, but I have yet to formally introduce myself and my little family.