It has been about a year since i became a parent. In this year so many things have changed... No, not really things, but rather my perspective. It is true that in order to really understand and relate to your parents you must experience parenthood yourself. It is not that you assume that parenting is no big deal unless you yourself have to get up 5 times a night to tend to a sick toddler. No, i think people are perfectly capable of theoretically understanding all the challenges associated with raising and caring for a brand new human being, but, it is something else, something not so tangible that you are now able to perceive that allows you to value and "feel" your parents in a whole new way. Once you produce a kid, your life efforts are directed towards him, all of your plans include, or work around him, and your previous, pre-child life goals now seem like just wonderful hobbies that you will be very happy to pursue if/when time allows. It is the "scarifies of focus", from the present in favor of the future, in the biggest sense. It is the hopes of achieving things via your descendants, things that you no longer have the hope of achieving yourself, that is the driving force behind this "sacrifice", so it is in a way still selfish, but it is a natural occurrence once you have reproduced. I see how my parents' life was centered around me, even though it was my grandmother who was my primary care-taker. Same as my life is now centered around S even though i work, enjoy hobbies and hope to achieve quite a few things myself in the future, the change of focus is unavoidable. Sometimes it makes me agree having all the responsibility, but none of the control, but such is a typical role of a step-parents, so i must submit to my destiny. I say that in jest, of course..
All of this comes to mind because my parents came to visit us on their trip to CA, and we have had the pleasure to spend a few weekends together. My mother seems more energetic and younger that before, while my father seems more tired, forgetful and sleepy. I hope C doesn't take after my father in the future :)
