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Family Dynamics
A married couple is a family. Add children and now there are new "Family Dynamics" to be enjoyed.
"We're a FAMILY!" Do you remember how that realization changed you? Carol Kuykendall asks this question in her book, Five Star Families.
"In the beginning," she writes, "we hardly understand how an eight-pound infant can transform the dynamics of the whole family. Not that we aren't warned. A protruding belly often invites words of advice, like this scenario. I'm standing in the checkout line at the discount store, buying newborn-size diapers about two weeks before my due date. Another mom wheels in behind me, with a toddler and infant in her cart.
Your first?" she asks, motioning to my belly.
I nod. "Due in two weeks. I can hardly wait."
"Oh," she says, shaking her head with some kind of wisdom I obviously don't have.
"Enjoy these last few days. Your life will never be the same."
I don't "get" her message until a few years later when I'm the one with two children in my cart and I hear myself saying exactly the same thing to a pregnant woman in front of me.
Children change everything. They give us a whole new purpose and create a new circle of roles and relationships. They turn us into parents, our parents into grandparents, our siblings into aunts and uncles. They continue to shape those relationships as we learn what it means to be a "family" with all the fun and sacrifices and new experiences and challenges.
If you'd like to read more articles by Mothering Mentor, Carol Kuykendall, I suggest you visit our web site for information on requesting a free copy of this month's MOMSense Magazine. Log onto www.MOPS.org or call us toll-free at 1-800-248-2682. |
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