Being a Grown-up

I recall when I was a young kid really feeling sorry for my parents that they didn't get to dress up for Halloween and go trick or treating. I felt bad for them that Santa was only for children, and that running around at recess wasn't for them anymore. While other kids were dying to grow up, I was lamenting the day that I would no longer be the Easter Egg hunter. Perhaps this says something about my childhood. It must have been fabulous or I would not have wanted it to last. But my happy childhood is a whole other story. My point of this is that what I did not realize at these joyous childhood moments is that my parents were having an even more wonderful time watching us do all these things. If they had even half the fun I have while watching my kids go through these activities then they were not sad to be grown ups, rather they were super happy to be doing just what they were doing - watching. I realized yesterday that on Saturday when our family went apple picking, I did not pick even one apple. I took a lot of pictures of the kids picking apples. My husband and I laughed and grinned while we watched the kids jumping for apples, chasing each other around the orchard, joking around together and riding on the tractor. But we are not here to be the pickers anymore. We get to be the involved audience (sort of like in The Rocky Horror Picture Show) at a magnificent production that is more real and amazing than I remember it even being when I was a kid.