Little kids can be hard work. After being wakened at 6:00 am last Saturday by a crying kid, then running around playing, swimming, chasing and carrying the kids all day, then being awakened three times Saturday night by the same crying kid, then running around playing, swimming, chasing and carrying the kids again on Sunday, I nearly collapsed with fatigue as we sat down to Sunday dinner.
Not for the first time did I wonder why I waited until I was in my thirties before having kids. Why didn't I do this in my twenties, when I wasn't so old? Better yet, I got to thinking, why didn't I do this in my teens, when I was bursting with boundless energy? I could have run circles around my kids when I was a teenager. They'd've been the ones nodding off at the dinner table last Sunday, not me.
Of course, there are problems with being a teen parent -- teens are too immature to be parents, they need to focus on school and they don't have the funds to support kids. But consider that our teen bodies were the strongest, most durable and most flexible bodies we'll ever have in our lives. We'll never approach the stamina and energy we enjoyed as teens. Our teen bodies were ideally designed to withstand the stresses of child bearing and child rearing.
It's really too bad that we're physically best suited to parenthood at a time when we're neither mentally nor financially equipped to handle it.
Upon further thought, though, I'll bet many of the problems with teen parenting could be solved if we paired older people with teens. The older half would bring money to the relationship, allowing the teen to attend school while a nanny watched the kids. The older half would also bring maturity to the team, beneficially blending the teen's tendency towards rash and youthful decision-making with a strong dose of age-earned wisdom.
The teen, of course, would bring to the relationship the physical strength needed to stay one step ahead of the kids.
I first became interested in this problem the other day as I watched a nubile teen hottie strolling outside our Sav-On wearing a tiny tank-top and a sheer wrap-around skirt that left little to my imagination.
Yes. I also find myself adapting well to the role of dirty old man in my thirties, and I don't know whether I do or don't want to believe that young "hotties" can develop an "older man syndrome."
Posted by: stephenesque | June 30, 2004 at 03:21 PM
Dirty old man? You mistake me!
I am happily married to a nubile hottie closer to my own age; I certainly couldn't handle another at this stage of my life, especially a younger.
No, I am concerned with teen parenting because of my concern for our society and its inability to efficiently allocate its most productive reproductive resources. I have no personal interest in this teen parenting matter whatsoever. None at all. In fact, I'm completely disinterested. Except when it comes to the good of society, of course.
Posted by: Outer Life | June 30, 2004 at 04:07 PM