Like the writing muse sometimes feels like an external directive, the desire to have children can feel like something over which you have no control. They are not kidding when they say having children is the hardest job you will ever do. Giving birth is the easy part. Then comes the fun of trying to protect and raise them which is rather like trying to hold on to a slippery seal while wearing oven mitts. And dagnabbit they have brains and wills of their own which they are keen to exert, often before they have learnt how to fully drive them.
And then comes the payback. When they make you laugh until your sides hurt. Or you share one of your favourite things with them, like a book or a movie and you spend half the afternoon discussing the subtleties of whatever it was you shared. Or they come home and say they won - sometimes against the odds - sometimes twice (or more) in one day. I'm very proud. Even though I can't take credit for everything they are, because really so much of that is from their own efforts, I must have done something right!
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