When did parents become personal assistants? A question I ask in all sincerity. I feel like at some point during the primary school years, the dependence of our children pulls back a wee bit. By that stage, they’re more independent and really becoming their future selves. But there is one thing kids still don’t possess at this age, but are more than happy to take advantage of their parents when it comes to this particular thing. Drum roll, please. Of course, I am referring to driving our kidlets around like we are their own personal chauffeurs. All in a day’s work hey parents?
We’ve all heard the horror stories of parents doing the school pick up and run to sport, recreation, laps around the block if their kids heart desires it, and whatever other errands that need to be taken care of. I remember being a kidless 20-something and thinking to myself, why don’t their parents just say no? It’s only now that I’m a parent myself that I realise one simple fact. We can’t.
You see my daughter is eight years old and she has well and truly discovered her “thing”. Little Miss Matilda’s thing happens to be singing and dancing. Luckily for her mother and I, our local dance school has a class called Song and Dance, so we’ve managed to kill two birds with one stone. Winning! But still it’s amazing how our weekends revolve around her attending this class. I could write a book on all the stuff we’ve said no to attending because Matilda has dancing. On top of that there’s all the extra performances and of course the much hyped end of year concert. It’s all money and more importantly precious time. Oh sweet precious time. How I miss thee. But how much of this do we as parents resent? Zero.
It’s strange, isn’t it. Once your kid actually discovers what their thing is, something clicks in parents and all of a sudden we’re bending over backwards to make it happen. I don’t know where that comes from. Is it love? I mean that’s the go to. But I feel the truth is actually something deep inside every parent. That little fire inside us constantly trying to set our kids up for success. The never ending running around to make their little ventures possible is just a necessary evil we have to live with to make it happen. And on the upside, if we ever want to moonlight as Uber drivers at least we are experienced. Good job parents!
