Member-only story
Being Child-Free Confers Immortality
Well, until it doesn’t
I recently stumbled upon a family photo of a friend of a friend whose kids I met fifteen years ago. Those darling little moppets are now young adults! How TF did that happen?
I know. I know.
Time passes. Children grow up. Blah blah blah.
Every person I know who has opted for — or fallen into — the life of raising a family chimes in with that same bewildered phrase: They grow up so fast.
And, yes, they do. It’s almost unbelievable what five years does to a kid. How did that wiggling little bundle of puke, poop, and utter adorableness morph into the monster demanding candy in line at the grocery store? Forget five years. Look at what the blink of an eye — twenty years — does to the little darlings!
And while the years are whizzing by from one birthday party to the next Christmas and, yikes it’s graduation already, parents are constantly clued in to their own mortality.
With each dead goldfish flushed and each tooth under a pillow replaced with cash, Mom and Dad are forced to face the reality of their own finite lifespan. Sure, it can get shunted aside in the chaos of raising kids but all it takes is the unprepared-for glimpse in a mirror or suddenly realizing the twins are turning ten this year…
