Kids?

I honestly don't think I want kids at all.
Really.
When their babies and they can be put to bed or pushed in a stroller (Whether they scream or not)
That's okay... this isn't so bad. I can handle that.
You can take them for walks and play with them and be their hero...and it's amazing.
The problem is... THEY DON'T stay that way :)

I have a five year old nephew whose misson in life seems to be completely annoying people till they scratch their own eyes out.
If he know's you're really tired, and need chair, he'll run and plop right where you're going to sit, so you can't sit there. You then have to argue with him to get up (because he won't).
If he knows you need him to move, he deliberately won't (especially if you need to get in the bathroom.
If you ask him to do something, he'll snap at you and say NO, and then stand there because you're not MAKING him do it (of course... he's a kid). And then that's an argument.
He'll wait until you're really tired and you DO sit down, and THEN he'll ask you for a million things. It'd be so easy if he'd just accept your answer and go in the bedroom... but of course, he doesn't. He asks again and again and again.
You know sometimes we adults don't have the energy for our kids to throw another fit.
I've heard parents say "If they throw a fit, they throw a fit...there's nothing you can do about it."
But it seems to me that when your CELLS are tired...you need quiet... you can't take anymore drama for the day.
He throws things at you and flashes things in your face so you flinch (he's a boy alright!) He'll climb up in your chair and jump on you (hurting you).
He hits people. He'll run up behind you and hit you on the back or butt you with his head. Or he'll get up on your lap and start hitting you in front.
His toys are always all over the floor, for us to make sure that we don't break our neck over them.
It's his job to pick them up and put them away so this does not happen...and this too is a contest. A fight.
He's been told several times not to race his cars on the kitchen table. He's allowed to on the floor... but not the table.
So now our kitchen table has several scratches in it because my nephew won't stop... racing his cars on it.

It's exactly like Bill Cosby said: "Sound like a tobacco auctioneer... 'Come here, come here come here, come here, come here, COME HERE... HERE!!!
'Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it... STOP IT!!
I've come to this conclusion:

Children certainly are a herritage from the Lord...but it's the most difficult herritage there is!
They take every ounce of energy that you have and more... with no ability to understand that you need a break.. They are unpredictable, and often, (whether we like it or not) uncontrollable. You can read all the books and manuals in the world (There are too many things, especially in parenting that you can't prepare for).
I once heard James Dobson do a show (FOTF) that was called "Motherhood: The guilt that keeps on giving." (also the title of the book).
Okay, I'm single with no kids...and I'm looking in from the outside; but I know this:
Mom's never stop worrying and they never stop feeling guilty. (I don't think dad's do either... really.)
They just don't... there's no way around it... they just don't :)
I've also heard parenting described this way: "...as hard as you think it is, you end up wishing it were that easy."
That was Deborah Winger in "Terms of Endearment."

Anyway, a great big hand to all you parents and relatives and mentors who have a hand in raising children... you are indeed blessed... and the rewards are eternal. :)
Try to take a long bath or soak your feet at the end of the day (here's hoping that you can :)
But I'd just like to thank my mother right now... because she's never pressured me to have children.
There are two questions that niether my mother or my dad have ever asked me:

1. when are you going to get married?
2. When am I going to see grandbabies?

I've spent some time (a lot, acually) being frustrated because my parents did not encourage me in these things. I never could understand why. Isn't this what people are supposed to do?
Some. Not all.
Train up a child in the way he (or she) should go.

Not everyone is meant to have children, and it seems to have taken me sooo long to really understand that this is OK. When I was a teen, my mom would tell me "Jesus never had any children... look at the impact he had."
I would cringe at that, because I would think "Yeah, and I'll never go to a cross either." (thank you Lord).
It all depends on what a person is made for. I was being so stubborn! I would KNOW that God might want to do "something else" with me... but be convinced that I didn't care (I'm supposed to get married and have kids right? (???)
Thank you Lord for helping me to listen...and see it differently!