Member-only story
The Things I Didn’t Do With My Children
And I’m Not Sure Whether I Regret Them Now
I tell myself that each of my three children had their own, individually-styled childhood. And this is true, to a certain extent.
My oldest son was born when I was a single mother, sure I could do this thing on my own. But then while he was still an infant, I met the man who would be my partner for many years and we had a fast, devil-may-care whirlwind of a romance that found us buying a house before my son even turned one year old. So much for that single independence I’d envisioned.
My daughter was born into that family scenario, totally unplanned, when my son was just two-and-a-half. Our little family had grown and life seemed right on track. We lived in a small Cape Cod with a tidy back yard complete with swing set and sand box.
Not long before my daughter was born, we chose to have just one working parent. The cost-benefit analysis made it the right choice.
Before then, I had worked a contract job, evening shift, for a major bank doing data entry. It was not a long-term gig, but it brought in some decent money. It also allowed that we had no daycare overhead, but it made for a very tired mama. Working 4pm-11pm was not easy on a relationship, either.
