Saturday morning

Ah the second weekend in a row I have woke up to hear rain. I love it. I love rain, more than I can ever say. I know it drives some people batty after awhile but I have never tired of it. Rain has a magical quality to it. The sound of it is refreshing. I can't help but see the replenishment of my world around me. I can almost hear the trees and grass sigh in contentment.

My BIL asked that we watch his daughter last night. She is basically a good kid, very spoiled and slightly opinionated but overall not a bad kid. The only problem is that he has her every other weekend. He has full custody of her, wtih the pyscho ex-wife periodically taking her and the in-laws taking her most of the ex-wife's time. But he wants to have every Friday off to spend the night with his girlfriend. So most of the time she spends his Friday nights with grandparents. I know what is like to crave adult only time. But all of J's siblings have spent a lot of energy getting people to watch their kids so they can continue to go out partying like they were still teens. We are the only ones who full time parent all of the time. I see so many parents who do this. What gets me is when we want to have a set of grandparents to watch the kids so we can get an occasional date, the grandparents are too tired from all of the others or already taken. Our kids get the least amount of grandparent time because we take our roles as parents as a full time responsibility. When J's sister had her second kid, it was really hard on them because her oldest kid went to his dad's every other weekend and she wanted someone to take the girl so they could have their every other weekend free. Now with the third kid, she has come to see that short of divorcing this guy, she has to parent at least 2 kids all the time. What a concept.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't resent that I parent all the time. This is the way it should be. And I wouldn't want it any other way. I just can't believe all the part time parenting I see. I know a lot of single parents who still full time parent. Their kids go away for the weekend with the other parent, but they are still invested. There are still the kids' events and just the heartstrings that are there. That is full time parenting. I do enjoy the occasional adult time too but in a few years, I will have it all the time. It is there, waiting for me and I will get there anyway.

Ok enough venting. Oh and Mere, here I am updating my blog regularly and you aren't even paying attention. Shame shame on you.