Fourteen

I know Lori. Right before my eyes, and the moments are so fleeting. Which is why I stop to take photos. So I won't forget. In this case, Celine asked me to take photos of her. She wanted some self portraits for a project she was working on. And then I asked if I could share my favorites on the blog (smile).

Thank you Elizabeth for coming to visit and wishing Celine a happy birthday. It's funny, I look at these photos and think how grown up she looks! But I know what you mean. Growing up too fast is such a shame. You have your whole life to be a grown up, but just a few short years to have the innocence and freedom of a child. 

Thank you Donna for coming out of your quiet observation to wish Celine a happy birthday (smile).

Hello Alaina,

I am sorry you get comments of that type... I wanted to say how sad that makes me... Because what I see in my generation is beauty, promise, hope, generosity, determination.... At 17, I know that "teenagers" are often viewed negatively, and my generation, particularly. But I truly believe (from all of the teens I am exposed to) that we are an incredible bunch :) 

I am sure that if you are parenting with love, empathy, and thoughtfulness (and I'm sure you are) you will reap those qualities which you are sewing. 

Nothing raises my ire quite so much as the phrase "just you wait". I think this response comes from the same place as most naysayer attitudes and negativity. Which I addressed quite thoroughly in this article at Outsideways. 

People have said "you'll see" or "just you wait" to many decisions our family has made and dreams we've had for our family life. Dreams that include enjoying our kids' teen years. 

People said this more often to us when we were younger and newly married and new parents, like we were too naive to know any better. They said this about being a homemaker (just you wait, you won't be able to live on one income), about homebirth (just you wait, it will be too painful, you'll have to go to the hospital), about health (just you wait, when you're 40 you'll feel old and you'll be overweight and tired just like us), about homeschooling (just you wait, you're not going to want to spend all day with your kids, you'll go crazy), and hiking (just you wait, kids won't hike that far) and more. It got tiring and I learned to ignore it and determined with each negative comment to work harder at building what I wanted (smile).

Now, they may think it but don't say it. Our lofty ideas now are to thru-hike the AT next year for 6 months, maybe live in a yurt or do some serious travel when our kids are all teens, to build community with our grown children (a family living complex), to rethink and live the notion of retirement completely different than our society, and to seriously downscale our lives and live super-small as a couple once our children set up homes of their own (we'll come visit them, in between our world travels). 

"Just you wait" lacks imagination, hope, and courage.