Growing up, anytime my sister or I complained about having to do something, my dad told us to hush up, that we were "making memories". You'll think back on this when you're old and grey and remember how you complained and you'll be glad that you actually did this."
Most of my friends are married and have kids. About 90% of my friends actually. I guess it goes with the territory of having worked at a daycare for 3 years and becoming best friends with a co-worker who now has 2 kids, and becoming close with the families of almost every child that was in my room.
My work schedule doesn't allow me to hang out with friends at night during the week. I get off work about the time that all the adults are going to bed. It sucks, but it's a paycheck. So because of this, my weekends are spent catching up with friends and spending time with those precious babies that I don't get to see during the week. This is what my single friends don't understand. "You're always with kids. How are you going to meet a guy if you're with kids every weekend? Don't you get tired of
spending your time with kids?"
Actually, I couldn't think of a
better way to spend my time. I'm truly happy when I'm around them.
Sure, it'd be nice to have a boyfriend that takes me out to a nice dinner on the weekends. Someone to watch a movie with and cuddle on the couch. But, you know, until I am in that situation, I'm perfectly content rocking my 15 month old Goddaughter to sleep or watching Spiderman with my 3 year old "nephew".
Because when I'm old and grey, I don't want to look back on this time and regret not spending it with them. Although it's likely they won't remember a lot of this time in their lives, I will. And I want to make these memories.
So I'm going to stop feeling guilty for being a single 24 year old. I'm going to stop trying to come up with alternate ways of explaining what I did on my weekend to my single friends at work when they ask me, knowing they know what I'm going to tell them. I used to be somewhat hesitant to admit that all I did in a weekend was play baseball with a 4 year old, or feed ravioli to a 15 month old.
Now I'm going to embrace it.
