There’s Still Hope

Aria was about 4 weeks old. I had an appointment to be at that afternoon. Vince was at work. It had taken me like 5 hours to get ready – and I didn’t even do my hair! I just threw on a cap. Between getting myself ready, getting Aria ready, getting her fed, and figuring out my new routine, learning how to be a new mom was showing to be quite a challenge for me.

When I finally got everything into the diaper bag and gathered all the things I needed for the appointment, I carefully got Aria secured in her carseat. I took a deep breath to try to calm the nerves. It was one of those moments I felt overwhelmed with so much going on. I looked down at her and asked her, “Am I doing this okay?” She looked me straight in the eyes and smiled at me. There she was, this tiny child in her cute pink outfit with matching bow, giving ME reassurance.

On Sunday the weather was really nice and Vince got out to do some yard work. As I passed by Aria’s room, I noticed she was putting on some running shoes while still in her pjs. I asked, “What are you doing?” She said, “I’m going outside to help Daddy.” In my head, I was like, “Awwww!” So I helped her get into some yard work clothes and got her on her way.

Keep in mind, Vince is a one-man show when it comes to yard work. He has his own routine. And sometimes when Aria wants to help with things we find it easier to just do it ourselves because it’ll get done faster. I looked outside the window as Aria asked Vince if she could help. Thankfully he had a few things for her to do. I felt so proud that my child offered to pitch in without even being asked.

Then this morning, I woke up to hearing Aria close the door to her bathroom. I had forgotten to turn on my alarm! Thankfully, Aria gets up by herself without me having to get after her. Otherwise we would’ve been so late! It all helps me realize, my child is so awesome! Like her dedication to working on getting better at basketball. Not only does she not complain when it’s time to practice, she finds opportunities to incorporate it in other places as well. One day we were at Costco, and she was jumping around pretending to shoot a basket and shouting, “Leeeebrooooon!” It was pretty cute.

So many times I hear people say stuff like, “This generation thinks they’re so entitled. They want everything given to them.” (In my mind, why shouldn’t they? They didn’t ask to be born.) Or people say things like, “These kids only want to be on their phones and tablets all day.” The way I see it, my generation suffered so much. We came from the Boomer generation that was so harsh and sometimes really mean to us. But that’s what they knew. Those were older generations built on survival. I feel like my generation (I’m at the tail end of Generation X, beginning Millennial) learned from our parents and grandparents mistakes and said, “Hey! The garbage stops here.” Some people still believe in “tough love” and “I had to learn to work for everything, now you do too.” And I’m thinking, “If I had to suffer, why would I want my kid to suffer too?” The way I see it, if I can do anything to help my kid level up, hell yeah I’m going to do it for her! Many people might call that coddling and spoiling, but I didn’t bring a child into this world to raise another sucky human.

So much of Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z have created a high-technology life to make the world an easier place to live. Uh, can you imagine how fast we could’ve written our senior term papers without having to spend hours at the library going through microfilms? While most of the older generations may hate advancement, the truth is there is no stopping it. So evolve with it or die. Most days Aria tells me about stuff she sees online and all her favorite YouTubers, and I’m over here like, “What?” But this is her generation, that’s what they do. They are crazy advanced in everything! Just like my generation was raised on movies of our worst nightmares and dreams of flying cars and far away worlds (We seriously had the best films!). That’s just the way of the world for each generation.

Every day I see Miss Aria has grown a little more in her sleep. I feel terrible for all the things happening in the world that she’s having to grow up in. But then I realize she’s becoming this awesome person with so many opportunities available for her. She’s so smart and so kind. It makes me hopeful that her Generation Alpha might have a chance yet.

I guess I am doing this parenting thing okay.