Parents Becoming Children

They always talk about how when your parents age, you pay them back for raising you...by taking care of them.  My mom is always taking my grandmas shopping, to lunch, etc.  Getting them out of the house, just like they used to do for my parents when they were growing up.  As your parents age, you are the one taking them to their doctor's appointments, hosting holidays, paying their bills, etc.  It really is the "circle of life", if you will.

I think it is such a great thing and I'm happy to be jumping in to it already.  My dad said after our wedding that he really wants to see us more and "do things" together.  It was sort of weird coming from my dad (that's totally not like him), but I completely agreed.  We only live about 90 minutes from my parents, grandparents, and a lot of my extended family...so there's no reason we shouldn't be seeing them!  Mike's family lives at the least, 7 hours from us, which is a long way, but we commit to a few holidays a year there, a few summer trips, and we are trying to get them to come down to the cities more often.

Mom & Dad in the back seat at Sonic!

So...back to my dad's preposition.  We really ARE trying to see our parents more and "do stuff".  After we got settled in to our new place, we invited my parents to come stay.  They brought us a few leftover things that were being stored at their house and we sat down for a great day.  Being the spaz that I am, I had to put the items away...end tables, rugs, etc.  Mike and Dad got restless and powered up my brother Nick's old XBox that they had brought us.  Literally, this thing is old...like it's in even an XBox 360 or whatever they are these days.  But it provided a few hours of truck/atv/dirt bike racing entertainment while Mom and I decorated and laughed at their ridiculousness.

We wanted to do something a little different for food so we took them to SONIC for their first time.  It was rainy outside so our options for daytime entertainment were slim.  But leave it to the Barnes-Olsons to make it a good time anyway.  They didn't understand we had to eat in the car, we couldn't all see the menu, so Mike stayed in the car while we all walked outside and looked at our own menus.  Oh, those poor employees.  My dad finished the order with a hardy "10-4!"

Totally.  Normal.

The crew from the loft.

We returned home to the normal chatting, story telling, blah blah.  They decided to stay the night, which meant we had to entertain ourselves for a few more hours.  We pondered bowling, bars...eh.  We settle on playing card games.  Old school style.  We have no board games (hint hint).  If it doesn't get more exciting than card games, woo!  But we surprised ourselves.  After teaching the parents P&A, them teaching us Euchre, cleaning out the fridge of most beers, and a few laughing fits that brought us to tears, we finally all crashed to bed at 1 AM!  It was such a ridiculous and fun night.  Good ol' bonding time.

Moral of the story is:  it was fun.  And I hope we can continue to show them new things, foods, activities...incorporate them into our big-kid-married-lifestyle.  Now is the time to enjoy all of us being healthy adults, together!




Take them time NOW to enjoy your parent's company, wisdom, and ideas.  Soon, we will be advising them on their health, finances, etc...but for now, we want to enjoy being with them.