Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Sometimes life feels like it is passing by in a blur. Take, for instance, this week. I haven't had a chance to blog here since Tuesday because I have had two trips out of town and I spent all day Thursday doing volunteer work. Time, from week to week, passes by in a never ending stream of busy-ness. I realized some years ago that this was not going to change. I kept thinking that next week would be quieter, but as time went by, and some weeks were quieter than others, they still steadily disappeared with an unerring scariness.

Friday was Halloween and Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 decided that once again they would hit the streets looking for an endless supply of candy. Livng in a rural setting, this is not the easiest task in the world since houses are separated by quite some distance. So, like any good rural dweller, we take our children (they aren't really any more) to the nearest town where they can join the frackous, and load up on goodies. We have done this for years. But being good parents and not wanting our kids killed or dragged off by some big kids, we would follow our children at a moderate pace and make sure they were ok. Till this year. Daughter #1, who is approaching 13 decided that having Mom and Dad in tow was dweebie and so she hooked up with friends and off she went. Daughter # 2 is having some difficulties right now letting go of her girlhood and so she decided not to hook up with friends as she didn't want to let go of having Mom and Dad in tow. So after school we picked her up and took her to Grandma's and Grandpa's for supper and then off into the depths of the night. We went to brave the ghosts, witches and storm troopers, not to mention the princesses, the taxi drivers and the vampires to seek the siren of the candy call.

I don't know about Daughter #2 but I was embarrassed! Hubby and I were the only parents dragging after an 11 year old kid as she went door to door. Most other parents were with 7 and younger kids. My 11 year old looks like she is about 13. It was scarier than Halloween night itself.

How does the time fly so that one Halloween you are escorting your very young daughters as their energy flags and they wear themselves out going door to door, to escorting your almost adult daughter because she can't let go of her little-girl-hood?

Finally, once my feet were soaked, I followed at a more discrete distance in the truck but Hubby didn't seem to notice that this was an issue. He, blissfully ignorant of the stigma attached to following and kid who looks big enough to be and adult, carried on with her. At one point she hooked up with a bunch of kids from her class. Hubby should have let her go and come back to the truck but did he? I'll let you answer that.

She had fun, so she says, and that is what counts, but I do have to wonder about how to get past this problem. Next year she will want to go again and I pray that she won't have to go alone, because Hubby will want to follow along again..... and that's the scariest thing about Halloween!

It is hard watching them grow up. It is hard to realize that Halloweens and Santa Claus and Easter Bunnies are a limited time offer. Your kids move on and eventually you and Hubby are left at home on Halloween night reminicing about the "good old days".

I have been thinking about how I can ease the Daughters into the next phase of their growing up, because it is not easy for them to give it up either. Next year, maybe we can have a costume party for them. Living in the country you can do that because you have the space for them to be inside and outside. We could do up the big shed dripping with scarey decorations and have a murder mystery where they have to act the part of the character they draw out of the slime bowl. We could have scarey themed witch hunts, where they have to go into the creaking woods and locate certain items in teams of two or three. But at least Hubby and I would be done with giving our kids a bad reputation! Waaaah! I want my little girls back!