The Slippery Slope of Parenthood
Last winter we did something that, years ago, I never would have foreseen myself doing: we went to a waterpark resort. It was a huge place, with multiple levels, hundreds of rooms, and a pizza place on the premises that no doubt made enough money on that very cold New Year’s weekend to keep the owners in mink mittens and diamond-soled snow boots for the rest of their natural lives.
We joined my sister’s family and dozens of others who gathered like lemmings at the slides and wave pools, in shallow water and deep, the screeching of our offspring drowning out the quiet voices within us that asked only for a warm fire, a good book, and a glass of wine.
Yes, I’m definitely the read-by-the-fire type, that let’s-take-a-quiet-walk type, the I-think-I’ll-take-a-nap-in-that-puddle-of-sunlight-spilling-across-the-bed type. But raising children means that even the staunchest introvert must occasionally face a weekend of superslides and screeching kid-hordes. (Read more…)
