Sounds weird, right? Well, before I had my daughter, back when I first met my husband, he had a manual transmission car (he still has it,) and it was something I had never tried before. One morning, I made him wake up at 6 in the morning, and sit in the car while I attempted to learn to drive his stick. (I know what you’re thinking…get your mind out of the gutter!)
The Learning Process
After an hour or so, I was confident enough to drop him off at work, and take the car around town. Boy that was the craziest day of my life (before baby.) Imagine being on your own in a car that you barely know how to drive, and drive in Austin, one of the hilliest (if that’s even a word,) cities in Texas.
Earlier this evening made me think about that day, and how I dived right in, and just started driving. Even though I knew manual is something most people have a hard time with, I knew that if I just put my mind to it, I could do it. Knowing full well, that I might stall out in the middle of an intersection, or stuck on a hill while there’s mounting traffic, or even worse have an accident because I rolled back into someone’s bumper. Well, fortunately none of those things, well not all of them, happened the first day I was learning how to drive a stick
In my experience, parenting has been just the same way. I dived right in, not really knowing what to expect. As a new parent, I’m still learning on how to do things, and when to do things, and even though you think you have the hang of it, there’s always the stalls and the roll backs. Yes, they do happen, but somehow we manage to get passed them.
The Sweet Spot
Eventually when you finally get the hang of driving a stick, you’re able to do all sorts of cool things like coasting, and staying in gear while at a complete stop (the sweet spot,) and get out of sticky situations when people are driving like maniacs. That’s how I think of parenting. There’s those moments where you can just get out of gear and coast through, doing all the right things, and save gas along the way (by gas I mean energy.)
Then there’s the sweet spot. The times that you can just sit still, still in parenting mode (in gear) and watch, at a standstill, your child growing and developing before your eyes. If you drive a stick, you know what I mean, but if you don’t, you still probably know what I’m talking about if you’re a seasoned parent. That’s what makes being a parent worth the while. Seeing a little human bud from just a little munchkin to a full on person.
Then there’s the sticky situations that you can get into, but after a few months of a munchkin running around, there are certain things you just know how to handle, and know how to avert, or deal with the situation in a matter of seconds, before baby even knows what’s going on.
One such situationsmade me think about all of this was when we were about to get baby into bed. While getting her clothing from the laundry room, I stepped on a piece of glass that my husband dropped earlier, and I guess he didn’t get every morsel, because some ended up in my big toe. While I was tending to my foot, I asked him to get baby ready for her bath, and so he did, got her diaper off, but he decided he wasn’t going to put a diaper on her while they were waiting. He refused to put her in the tub while I was fixing my toe, after repeated requests and declarations of “she’s fine until you’re ready”, then pssssssss. OH NO! He got peed on!
I’m sorry honey, but I couldn’t help but laugh. I told you to put her in the tub! That’s the moment when you think you’ve got everything under control, and then BAM, things aren’t so rose colored anymore, but that’s a moment you also have to stop and laugh.
Anyway, this comparison is really starting to fry my brain, and I also have tons of housework I need to get to, so I’ll leave you all with that.
Do you think I’m just crazy and making a stretch in comparing parenting to driving a manual transmission? Do you have anything to add, or maybe another angle? Please feel free to chime in, and help make me feel like I’m not talking to the inter-wall.
Cheers!
~Hale Mom
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
No that is an amazing good comparison, also in that fact that even as a seasoned pro a wrench can still get thrown at you every once in awhile. This post made me miss the very first car I ever owned myself.
Its a great comparison. I’d like to think that parenting is like a great big frosted cake. The outside looks wonderful, you can’t wait to dive in. But sometimes when you cut into that cake you find its full of nuts. Nuts are yucky. But then other times you cut into it you get yummy rich chocolate. Erases all thoughts of yucky nuts. You never quite know what your gonna get but either way the frosting is always good and if you put your mind to it you can just work your way around the nuts. (I was going to say suck out the nuts but then I was afraid someone might think I was talking about something else besides children-I’m keepin’ it clean yo!)