If Life is a Journey, Parenting is an Adventure

The pediatrician told me something yesterday I would have just nodded my head and forgot about afterward, had she said it a month ago.

"Parenting is an adventure." That sounds so simple doesn't it? Small talk almost. But it has different meanings, like the Life Is a Journey, Not a Destination thing.

Read the definition of adventure, according to www.dictionary.com -

1) an exciting or very unusual experience.

2) participation in exciting undertaking or enterprises.

3) a bold, risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

4) a commercial or financial speculation of any kind; venture.

5)

a) peril; danger; risk.

b) chance; fortune; luck.

At one time or another, being a parent fits all of the above criteria. It's crazy, optimistic, expensive, risky, and even benefits and requires luck sometimes - to name a few things you can say about having and raising children.

It's easier just to say "It's an adventure."

In the movie Parenthood, Jason Robard's character Frank, the imperfect, pragmatic and seemingly remorseful patriarch says that the caring involved in being a parent "never ends." He says something like "You never cross the goal line, not when your kids are 30, or 40 or 80."

You never know what you're getting in to when you talk about having children, but from the second you know they're in there, you're only certain that you love them. Everything else that comes thereafter is subject to variables.

Forgive me for stating the obvious. I'm in the process of changing the way I think. Being a parent has recently moved me from the mindset list and prepare for all that could go wrong to the attitude of things will happen, meet life head on.

It's not like I'm waiting in line for a roller coaster and still have time to change my mind and turn back. I'm on the ride now and it never, ever ends.

Grandma in Parenthood says - "I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it."

In my personal experience on roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Disneyland, and Disney's California Adventure (adventure!), roller coasters aren't as scary, are easier on the stomach, and much more fun when your eyes are open and you surrender yourself to enjoying it.

My life would be less of an adventure without children. Without them, my life would have been one of those bus or train rides around the park, from which you sit and watch other people - families - living their lives to maximum, exciting, capacity.

I don't think the bus or train ride is adventurous enough for me.

sing with me...when you're sliding into first and you feel a sudden burst...