Childhood is Not a Dress Rehearsal to Our Kids

I saw a bumper sticker today that said, Childhood is not a dress rehearsal. How true is that?  Do we sometimes think that we are getting our children ‘by’ by thinking that we are ONLY getting them ready for the future, for life, and for anything else that will happen to them once they ‘leave the nest’ so-to-speak?

To our kids, LIFE is in the now.  What they do day-to-day is their show, it is not their dress rehearsal….it IS THEIR SHOW and it must go on as the saying goes.  While I think I am only molding my kids to grow into something special (as we all do); my kids are just going to school, being with friends, and doing what they do.

Now do not misunderstand what I am saying.   We, as parents, must continue to teach our children in oh so many ways.  It is our job to…….well….be parents.  But always hold on to the fact that our children do not necessarily think about the future as we think about their future. 

Our kids think the future is tomorrow, or next week, or not much further than that time span.  They know the future is coming but they neither fear it or probably are not much concerned about it and surely nowhere as much as we are.  Probably not until sophomore or junior year in high school do they think about college is life in the future held with much thought.

It is funny to hear a child say they ‘want to be an astronaut’ when they are seven years of age but are they really thinking of becoming an astronaut?  Today they want to be one, tomorrow a dancer, and the next day a doctor.

So as you go through the diabetes world with your child, know this; that they know they need insulin, know they need to check their blood sugars, and know that there is a relationship to what/when they eat and their diabetes……….but they probably do not know, and probably do not care, about much else at this early stage in their life.  They just want to get done what they need to with their diabetes and get back to whatever it was that they were doing.

There is something to be said about looking at life through their eyes……in as much as we fret and are concerned; the curtain on their life goes up daily…….and on with the show they go.

I am a diabetes dad.

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