Large families do everything together. They visit museums, go to parks, bike, hike, ski, everything. At some point though you find that the older children maybe don’t want to visit the same museum again, for they go every year. Like those dreaded Christmas movies that we watch in December out of some unspoken sense of obligation, we visit the state museum every February. These little repetitions become traditions until suddenly, our sixteen year old son asks to stay home from the annual trek. So maybe we drop the annual field trip. Slowly at first, but then completely. Like a long lost memory of when our family was one unit and we did everything together. Until one day… our youngest casually mentions that he has never been to the museum. What? How can that be? We go every year. At least we did, until he was three. We are faced with a choice: Do we excitedly restart the annual trek, or grudgingly load up our youngest two children to try to check off the box of parenting expectations? Life is full of decisions.
This cycle is not isolated to museums, Christmas movies, or even traditions. We find ourselves here when we realize that our younger children don’t know anything about college admissions, expectations, extra curricular activities, or navigating the dual enrollment road. We may ask in bewilderment, “How can this be?” Haven’t we repeatedly given these directions over and over throughout the years. Maybe we have, but did our ten year old find it his duty to listen and retain information that didn’t at the time apply to him? Of course not. We are faced with a choice: Do we excitedly re-explain the college admissions process and future hopes to our youngest, or grudgingly throw a few pamphlets at him and hope that he wants to go right into the work force? Life is full of decisions.