Growing Up....

Growing up ...

By Allan Olson

As many adults have come to realize over their life-span, growing up is hard to do.

Growing up means responsibility, jobs, accountability, and many other big words that are, at times, very hard to swallow.

As a parent those two words are not any easier. It means that not only do you have to do all those big words, but you also have to show your child how to become that as well.

Yet, as a parent there is another aspect that is just as hard to handle.

When my children were born, it was great to watch them learning to grow up, having them recognize you, say your name for the first 100 times (now it’s 100 times a day) and be excited over practically nothing.

With all of that they are growing up. As an infant it’s much easier to let them grow up (at least for me it was.) I didn’t like the communication barrier when something was wrong and I certainly could’ve skipped the messy bottoms and the middle of the night feedings ... most of the time.

However, as my children have gotten older, I’ve found sometimes that I wanted to slow life down for a little while.

When Abigail came home a couple years back with a new haircut that was shorter and more stylish than before, it made her look grown up. I started to feel that her life was going to flash by me in a flurry. As she’s gotten older she has only gotten more into the girlie things for her hair, or nails and all the rest of those accessories. A couple of weeks ago we launched into a whole new era ... at least in my opinion.

We were on our yearly shopping trip and my wife asked if we were going to get Abigail’s ears pierced. After a momentary panic attack I conceded. Mainly because we’ve talked about it for quite a while and she has asked about it several times.

The second evening of our long weekend out of town we dropped the other kids at my cousin’s house and we headed off to take our five-year-old to get our ears pierced.

On our way to the mall we talked about it with her. “Abigail you still want your ears pierced right?”

“When I’m older, when I turn six,” she said.

Great, now here we were on our way to the mall and she’s changing her mind.

After further discussion with her, she decided she was ready.

She picked out her new earrings, and, to the surprise of both her mom and I, she didn’t choose pink but rather a blue color.

Sitting in the chair, and click, the first earring was in with hardly a flinch. The attendant gave her a mirror and she gazed at her new earring.

The second ear, she knew what was going to happen and was flinching before it started. When the punch in the ear happened, she started pulling back. She had to be held to finish the piercing. Still nothing but a whimper and it was all over.

As I sent the picture message to some family and friends, my sister-in-law responded and asked ‘how are you doing?’ I didn’t cry I said.

It was hard to see my little girl growing up like that and I can’t imagine it’s going to be any easier in the upcoming years for me ... or my girls.

She was told she had to keep the earrings in for six weeks without changing them. Then one afternoon last week her oldest brother and her were wrestling and somehow one of the earrings came out. Luckily, I found it and with some assistance it was back in her ear correctly. A couple days later her mom noticed she was missing an earring; her first pair of earrings lasted all of two weeks.

Two weekends ago we also celebrated a 9th birthday with our oldest son; it is crazy how fast time is flying.

I’ve come to the conclusion that while growing up is hard to do, it is just as hard watching my children grow up.

Thanks for reading, and remember to watch out for those school buses. As always, feel free to drop us a line and/or a photo have a great week. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com