The Waiting Game

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to the DMV because we had sold a car and I had to turn in the license plates and have them pay me, for a change, for my refund of the unused months on my current tag. I always like to go early in the morning when I plan to visit this establishment because traditionally the lines seem to be a lot shorter first thing in the morning. This day not so much. I walked in and the line was at least 20 deep and I immediately thought about leaving but I didn’t and got in at the end. Luckily I did stay that morning because even though the line was long, they had about that many tellers there to help all the customers and I was out the door in about 10 minutes.

I am sure all of us have been in that line that seems to go on forever. Best example of this is when you hit one of those amusement parks in Florida or California. Last summer we visited Animal Kingdom on a trip to Florida and got to check out the new ride, Avatar. Kori waited at the end of the line while I took the kids on a couple rides she didn’t want to try and we rushed back to meet her in time to get into the final stages of the line. We thought it was the final stages but it was just that part of the line that seemed to wind around the ride several times. After an hour in the Florida sun, I wasn’t sure I could wait any more. My patience had certainly been pushed to the limit. Just when I was ready to give up, we were ushered into the building and got to experience Avatar for the first time. I was amazing but I have to admit I felt sick for the next hour and actually had to go lie down in the medical building.

The point I am trying to make is that as our kids have gotten older, we have spend a lot of time waiting. Not in a winding line in the hot sun. Not behind some disgruntled patron that thinks their life is more important than anyone else but we have spent countless hours waiting for our kids to make decisions. You see we have some adults now and we have raised our kids to make decisions on their own. Unfortunately, those decisions are not easy for a new adult to make. Each decision has consequences and each have their strength and weaknesses. When we are asked and sometimes when we aren’t asked, we try to provide them with what we think would be the right decision and we also explain the other side of the decision when things aren’t so clear. Then we wait. Kori and I believe parenting has become more like a waiting game now that we have kids out of the house and young adults.

Our kids are teenagers and above now and there will be countless important decisions for them to make that will help to shape their future. Unfortunately, they are not always ready to make decisions when we think they should be…and so we wait. We wait to see what they want to do during their summer when not at college. We wait to see what if any summer camp they plan to attend. We wait to see where they plan to travel this summer. We wait to see what is next in their career path.

There is a lot of waiting going on in our house! We know the lives they choose to live are their own and although we want to help them make their important decisions, we know at the end of it all, the decisions are theirs to make. They all know we will always be there for them and they also know we want them to live their own life. Admittedly, I wouldn’t mind going back in time to wait with the younger versions of the Becker 4 in one last Dumbo ride at The Magic Kingdom for as long as possible