Sometimes You Forget You're Making ... People!

I remember the first time I noticed my son was a little person. I don't mean to sound thick-headed, but over the first few weeks of caring for him, I was so concerned with getting everything right, doing everything on time, "hitting all my marks" as a parent, I didn't slow down enough to realize he was a little person and I could just enjoy him. It was a breakthrough.

It was a foggy funky summer's day in LA, and I realized looking down at him wrapped in a blankie on the bed next to me that we could just be there and chat and baby talk and look at things in the room and let him grab my finger with his tiny ones and that would be enough. It was a day I threw all the parenting books in a pile in the corner and just let my baby be the book.

And now at ten years old, I am remembering the same thing all over again, that he's a young person and amazingly fun to talk to, hang out with, play with, learn from. I can slow down, not get hysterical about minor infractions on the house rules, not worry about him turning out perfectly, and just enjoy him.

Sometimes you forget as a parent that you're really making people. New little people. And even better, when they start to talk and walk and even go to the movies with you, you realize you're making people you really like a lot, people you want in your family, people who will call you up and ask how you're doing someday when they don't live in your house anymore.

And if you can just relax and remember that sometimes, it makes the whole thing worth it.