There are days...

I posted this picture on my personal blog and said that, while I don't usually care too much for cutesy animal pictures, this one makes me laugh. My good friend Jewels said that sometimes she feels this way about her kids.

Now that really made me laugh.

Are there not days, though, when the thought of eternal parenthood as the ultimate reward seems like the ultimate punishment? I hope it's not just me.

Some days, my two teenage girls get along famously. They laugh, they get silly, they talk till all hours of the night. And then there are times when I swear they would dismember each other if they only had the proper tools.

Sometimes the four-year-old is charming and sweet. Then there are times when he uses the words he's learned from the older sisters and makes a stink when his little cousin, whom I babysit, tries to play with his toys.

Surely my siblings and I were not this much trouble for my parents. We were all that was good and lovely, charming and witty. We never burped, complained, whined, fought, back-talked, slouched or texted during meals. (Well, we couldn't text during meals. We would have thought it meant something like typing a research paper on a manual typewriter).

I know that I surely never sent my mother to bed emotionally exhausted because of my antics. I never left things out all over the house, didn't drop wet towels on my bedroom floor, didn't leave food crusted on plates in my bedroom.

Here's hoping my mother never sees this post.

Truly, though, and you knew this was coming, there are moments that make the hard stuff, (which really isn't THAT bad), worth it.

Like tonight when my son watched the girls trying to hula-hoop and said, "You guys can't hoop-de-hoop."

Or when the 14-year-old put her arms around my husband's neck this morning, despite a battle of wills last night, and said, "I'm sorry about yesterday, Dad. I love you. Happy Birthday." (Truly, the best part of that whole thing was that she reminded me it was his birthday. Oops).

It's all good, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It does help, though, that I'm not the only one who looks at the vicious squirrel up there and sees herself attacking the children. Keeps them on their toes. ;-)