Time Well Spent

In five days, Chad and I will stand on the front porch and take our babies’ back-to-school-pictures, then we’ll drive those babies to school and say goodbye to a sophomore, a freshman, and a brand new middle schooler. Every year it’s the same scene: The two of us sitting in our car, childless, asking ourselves, “Where did the time go?”

As the years go by, we all ask that question in some variation. But no answer ever seems to be given. So I will answer it myself.

Where did the time go?

The time went to holding my little papooses, snuggled in blankets, while singing them lullabies and worship songs and when I ran out of those, theme songs to 80’s sitcoms because refined culture is important no matter what age.

I spent countless hours changing diapers, doing laundry, wiping runny noses and drool-coated chins. I spent way too much time whining because my house couldn't stay clean and now I wish I could go back and tell myself that having a house that looks like a model home just doesn’t matter when you have babies to love, and I would change a thousand more diapers for a chance to hold those little guys one more time.

Sometimes it seemed like ten hours a day were spent teaching manners, respect, and how to “use your words.” Sometimes it seemed like twenty hours a day were spent disciplining them. But I look back on those days and know that we were training them up in the way they should go. And the world will be glad that we did.

The time went to traveling as a family or sitting on the couch in our pajamas. We went to libraries and zoos. We went to parks and to beaches, to the woods and to the city. We went to fairs and movies and plays. We ice skated, roller skated, and snorkeled. We played in the snow, we played in the mud, and we did it all together. We experienced life as a family and no career was more important than raising our kids.

And now the time is spent planning for the future, teaching these guys how to prepare for the real world, how to succeed in life and that doesn’t mean financially. The time is spent in the car with the fifteen-year-old driving, Chad in the passenger seat, me in the back with both hands clamped over my mouth because my baby girl who wanted to be a kitty when she grew up cannot possibly be ready to face these crazies out on the road.

So next week, when we send our kids off to school, and I cry in the car while Chad comforts and laughs at me, if the question comes up, “Where did the time go?” I’ll know the answer. It went to being a family and making memories. And it was time well spent.