my small person
aside: Getting this out there is really hard for me. I've been sitting on this entry for almost a month now. I'm not exactly sure why. But I might as well get it out there.I love my daughter. I love my daughter more than just about anything in this world. When she looks at me and tells me she loves me, or she cuddles up with me ... I know I'
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One of the most mind-opening things that _MWife_ and I ever did before starting to foster was baby-sitting an eight year old. A piece of furniture has more to do than we did. We had two distinct tasks: Drive him to McDonald's for lunch and drive him to his toy store so he could spend his pocket money. The remainder of the time he was in his room, watching TV, playing with his toys. We were the backup plan, not the main show.
In about a year, Ariann is gonna be there; in about three more years, you can probably count yourself lucky if she doesn't want to sleep over at another friend's house every night. By 12, she'll be embarrassed of her parents like any other teenager in the world, further minimizing interaction. One of my friends has four daughters, and the oldest one (16) basically needs him to be in the vicinity when she does stuff; but God forbid he actually, like, interact with her! (They are top notch parents, I have no hope of ever becoming as good as they are.)
I imagine, most parents have a killer time with that change; I have vague memories of my mom accosting me some afternoon that I had spent completely at my best friend's house for not being home. I could not figure out what the hell she was talking about and she never repeated that one (maybe there was something else going on too, maybe I had made her stay home for something inadvertently, or who knows).
So you will be ready to take this change in stride, it sounds, and rhianwyn will be ready to find a substitute for Ariann, I suspect?
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