I saw this quip on Facebook and I couldn't agree more. I'm not naïve. The sexual revolution and women's lib did happen. It's all true, but now that I'm into my middle to late 30's I'm missing a simpler time. Who am I kidding? I've been missing my childhood since it ended.
Being a stay-at-home momma (thank you Jeff) has afforded this mother with an opportunity to relive some of those moments with my children, and to even recreate them for a new age. While we don't have the above-ground pool I once enjoyed growing up, we do have a kiddie pool and a sprinkler, not to mention the slip and slide. We still enjoy popsicles and sticky fingers, doing our best to avoid sunburn and insect bites. The girls have even discovered the delight of the clothesline, playing in and among the sheets and towels in their own, secret world.
Much is lost in our world today. It's simplicity is gone and it's replacement is a sense of over-connectedness and a feeling of needing to unplug to unwind. We've always had responsibilities, they've just infringed on more of our personal time since the invention of personal computers and cell phones. With all the new fangled gadgets, I feel a need for less race, more relaxation.
Time now passes more quickly, threatening to cascade down the mountain and I can't stop it's avalanche. While I was younger, I remember when I couldn't wait to be in the next grade. Now I see my toddlers growing out of 2T clothing and into 3T before my bleary eyes and I want to put bricks on their heads and urge them to stop growing, because...I want them to stay little. Not for always, just for now.
As their hair and limbs lengthen, and their faces become more lean, they begin to look like little girls and less like toddlers. Their sentences are growing longer, their thoughts more intentional and their deeds more purposeful. When did they become so polite, and yet so eager to fight each other over the slightest misdeed? I fought with my sister when we were little, no mistake about that. I see some of the same squabbles between my girls that I did between myself and their Aunt Cari. (Ah...we had it good, didn't we Cari?)
Saturday morning cartoons, hikes to the creek past the town sewage treatment plant, Nintendo, bike rides, forts in the woods, trips to Seabreeze Amusement Park and summers at the Lake? Back to school shopping trips for clothes and school supplies were the best. When that alarm went off on those September mornings, we practically sprung out of bed to put on our new favorite outfit for the first day of school. We. Were. Awesome...because we had each other.
I miss Mayberry. I miss living at home with my parents...the simplicity of being taken care of by other people who paid the bills, protected us from the boogeymen, and chased away the bad dreams. I miss having someone take care of me when I'm sick, to cook my dinner and to give me money when the ice cream truck comes to the neighborhood. (Dang-it Mom and Dad, when can you move in?) I miss a time when my hardest decision was whether or not to peg my jeans.
I must be careful not to spend these years wishing I was living in the past, lest I miss the blessings of the present. So I relish this time with my daughters, trying to let go, and be more spontaneous and to remember how much fun it is to get dirty and to sink my toes in the mud, because time flies on swiftest wings, and little girls become tweenagers in the blink of an eye. My daughters, now is your time to shine for your Mayberry is now.
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