Sixteen

My babies will be turning sixteen in two weeks. It's amazing how time flies! My not so little cousin Heather just had her first baby yesterday. She is 19. I was 19. And time is going to really start to fly for her. Sixteen. When I think about what I was doing at sixteen, well I'm glad my boys aren't so much like me. They don't seem in much of a rush to grow up. I guess I wasn't either with certain things, like working or driving. But I was out and about all the time living it up at sixteen. They are more home bodies, or maybe even loners, or late bloomers. They don't seem to want to make plans and go out. I never wanted to be at home. Which is probably part of what had me having them at nineteen.
Boy, were things different baby-wise sixteen years ago. I guess the amount of multiples has jumped so much, and mom inventors, that there is so much extra baby stuff one "must have" nowadays. Shopping carts didn't even have a double seat back then. I couldn't go out with the kids myself. I needed someone to push the other cart with the other baby in it. There were no infant seats that went from in the car to hook onto the grocery cart. Nice and easy now. I had one huge car seat for each of them that lasted until they were 4. After that there wasn't any of this booster seat baloney. Kids are supposed to be in a booster till something like 8 years old now! Unless they weigh more sooner or something I think. What about less? My son was so skinny he'd have been in one until he was 12, going by the weight! I had infant carriers. That was all they were for. Take the kid out of the car seat put him in the carrier to get around. And of course if they couldn't sit up yet that seat had to go in the back of the cart. Forget about getting much shopping done, there was barely any room back there with the kid in the cart. There weren't any infant double strollers either. Well not the ones you could fold up and put in your car anyway. The double umbrella stroller I had was too wide to fit through most aisles in the stores. I started to feel for people with disabilities in wheelchairs because that was about how wide the stroller was. I had a huge front and back stroller with huge wheels and springs for just walking around the neighborhood. There was no way this thing was fitting in a car. Although with the SUV's now maybe it would.
A lot of things they have are better and make life easier on mom. But some are really crazy, like the baby wipe warmer. Because why should the child suffer with a cold towel cleaning his bottom when it could be nice and warm. Well, when it gets nice and warm it'll dry out the towel and it won't work. Then you have to wet it all over again! Of course you can't have a walker that'll help your child to walk because too many stupid people didn't watch their children and let them fall down stairs. I don't know if me and my kids were better off because I always had my mother with me at their doctor visits. And in the car after telling me what part of what he said I should listen to and what part to ignore. Like Mom said have them start cereal at 3 months. when the Dr. said start cereal we started onto fruits. When he said start fruits, we were on to veggies. Every age has different rules and standards of whats good and what not. Every kid has different things that will work for them. Every mother too. You know best mom no matter what the Dr. says.

Times are certainly different. And my babies aren't babies anymore. My husband even took one of them out driving for the first time yesterday in a school parking lot he knew had plenty of space in it. I don't want to know about it. I don't want to think about it. I'm in no rush for them to drive. They have also been told that they won't be helped learning to drive or even be able to get their permit until they get jobs and show some kind of responsibility. My one son keeps his room as a disaster area. He has no respect for any of the things he is given. Driving isn't a right, it's a privilege. He'll learn that the hard way if he has to. My other son seems to have tunnel vision all the time. He's focused straight ahead and has no clue whats going on around him in his peripheral view. That's no way to drive. Maybe it's too much tv, video game, computer time. Maybe it's just how he's always been. No matter, he needs to break out of that before he's allowed on the road. So we're hoping jobs will help and we'll see. I may only have two years left with these babies of mine at home with me. Anything is possible so that definitely is too. In that time I hope I can teach them everything they need to know about being on their own. If that's where their road takes them.