One of the best tangents of becoming a parent is seeing your own parents in new light. (This is me adulting). While searching for some good pictures of my kids with me I came across old pictures of my parents as new parents. In the pictures, they were the same age that I am today.
If I could time travel, I'd be at one of their house parties, wearing
bell-bottom trousers, slightly moving to ABBAs playing in the background.
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| My parents as new parents |
I've seen these pictures a 100 times growing up. And the focus has always been to look at how my sister or I looked as a kid. But today all I could see was them. New parents' glow. Celebrating first birthdays, balloons and streamers put up by dad, beautifully decorated homemade cakes and snacks by mom and a fussy cranky toddler. Precious. No amount of money can buy the effort that went into planning and executing that party. None of the artificial looking fondant cakes or birthday parties at posh hotels can ever match what Mom made and organised.
I saw bright, colourful happiness in black and white
pictures. My parents celebrating parenthood moments with such fondness; baby
massages, first time Nani, a young Dad managing to fit his daughter in his
strong muscular forearm. A young Mom, looking gorgeous, was smiling brightly
with a baby, rounder than her, clinging to her arm.
For the first time in all these years, I could relate more with the people my parents were than the parents they've always been. They too like us would've been putting their best foot forward (for us) despite being exhausted (by us). They would've dreamed like we do today of what we'll become and how we'll turn out. They too would've worried themselves sick when we were sick. My god, Mom Dad are people too. Just like us. Why didn't I ever see that earlier? Why do I always expect them to have more patience, more love, more forgiveness, more everything than me?
Today when I see them as grandparents, I get a glimpse of
what they would've been with us when we were babies. How they would've pacified
us, fed us, cheered at our little milestones, entertained us, lulled us to sleep. And how after a long tiring day
of handling us, they would've still been smiling and considering it worth it.
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| Left: My dad with his first born Right: My Dad with his first grandchild |
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| My Parents, now Grandparents |
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| Same enthusiasm years later |
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| Left: My Nani as a first time Nani. Right: My mom as a first time Nani |
If I could time travel, I'd be at one of their house parties, wearing bell-bottom trousers, slightly moving to ABBAs playing in the background and telling them what wonderful parents they are going to be.
