On Being a Parent Read online

  Chicken Soup for the Soul® Our 101 Best Stories:

  On Being a Parent; Inspirational, Humorous, and Heartwarming Stories about Parenthood

  by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Amy Newmark

  Published by Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC www.chickensoup.com

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 2009 by Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

  CSS, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and its Logo and Marks are trademarks of Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing LLC.

  The publisher gratefully acknowledges the many publishers and individuals who granted Chicken Soup for the Soul permission to reprint the cited material.

  Front cover photo courtesy of Getty Images, ©Mike Kemp/Rubberball. Back cover photo courtesy of Jupiter Images/Photos.com. Interior illustration courtesy of iStockPhoto.com/Tomacco. Smiley-faces courtesty of Jedediah Owen Taylor.

  Cover and Interior Design & Layout by Pneuma Books, LLC

  For more info on Pneuma Books, visit www.pneumabooks.com

  Distributed to the booktrade by Simon & Schuster. SAN: 200-2442

  Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  (Prepared by The Donohue Group)

  Chicken soup for the soul. Selections.

  Chicken soup for the soul : on being a parent : inspirational, humorous, and heartwarming stories about parenthood / [compiled by] Jack Canfield [and] Mark Victor Hansen ; [edited by] Amy Newmark.

  p. ; cm. -- (Our 101 best stories)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-935096-20-7

  ISBN-10: 1-935096-20-6

  eISBN-13: 978-1-6115-9178-1

  1. Parenthood--Literary collections. 2. Parenthood--Anecdotes. 3. Parents--Literary collections. 4. Parents--Anecdotes. I. Canfield, Jack, 1944- II. Hansen, Mark Victor. III. Newmark, Amy. IV. Title. V. Title: On being a parent

  PN6071.P28 C48 2008

  810.8/5/02/03525 2008934916

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  on acid∞free paper

  16 15 14 13 12 11 10 04 05 06 07 08

  Contents

  A Special Foreword by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

  Preface: The Smiley-Faces, Brian Taylor

  ~The Joys of Parenting~

  1. The Day It All Came Together, Ilsa J. Bick

  2. Change of Heart, Jane Milburn

  3. Snow at Twilight, Maggie Wolff Peterson

  4. Pictures, Phyllis Nutkis

  5. Perfect Vision, Karen Driscoll

  6. A Mother’s Mid-Summer Prayer, Debbie Farmer

  7. Just Another Day, Charlotte “Charlie” Volnek

  ~Funny Times~

  8. Hamster on the Lam, Amy and Jim Grove

  9. Chickenpox Diary, Janet Konttinen

  10. Sibling Rivalry, Deeptee and Vikrum Seth

  11. A Forkful of Humor, Kimberly A. Ripley

  12. The Family Ski Trip, Ernie Witham

  13. Where Do Babies Come From? Elaine Stallman

  14. A Child’s Blessing, Richard Lederer

  15. Breakdown of Family Traced to Psych. 1 Student, Beth Mullally

  16. The Concession Stand, Ernie Witham

  ~Moms Really Do Know Best~

  17. The Nicest Thing My Mother Ever Said to Me, Marilyn Pribus

  18. Homecoming, Arthur Wiknik, Jr.

  19. Potato Salad and Picnics, Nancy B. Gibbs

  20. Wishing Away, Lana Brookman

  21. Ruby’s Roses, Donna Gundle-Krieg

  22. Getting My Priorities Straight, Sybella V. Ferguson Patten

  23. Apron Time, Donna Partow

  24. In the Sack, Carol McAdoo Rehme

  ~Wise Dads~

  25. Ballerina Dog, Jackie Tortoriello

  26. Once the Son, Now the Father, W. W. Meade

  27. A Veteran’s Garden, James P. Glaser

  28. The Halfway Point, Dennis J. Alexander

  29. Baseball Game Plan, Larry Bodin

  30. Papa’s Best Lesson, Olga Valle-Herr

  31. A Moment Can Last Forever, Graham Porter

  32. A Letter to Santa, David V. Chartrand

  ~They Grow Too Fast~

  33. Lost and Found, Alice Steinbach

  34. When Did She Really Grow Up? Beverly Beckham

  35. Sending Kids Off to School, Susan Union

  36. Here and Now, Barbara Schiller

  37. Who Called the Sheriff?, Nancy B. Gibbs

  38. The Bus Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Denise Syman

  39. I Am My Mother and Proud of It, Teresa Tyma Helie

  ~Loss and Lessons~

  40. An Even Greater Lesson, Barbara Russell Chesser

  41. Blessed, Tammy Laws Lawson

  42. Cassie, Blaine Bonnar

  43. Ryan’s Hope, Nancy Lee Doige

  44. One So Young, Diane C. Nicholson

  45. On Top of the World, Diane Graff Cooney

  ~Parents by Choice~

  46. The Question, Mary Chavoustie

  47. Fostering Memories, Janet Nicholson

  48. Behind Blue Eyes, Jenny Graham

  49. George and Gracie’s Babies, George Burns

  50. Son for a Season, Jo Ann C. Nahirny

  51. Hanging On to Hope, Martha Bolton

  52. After the Tears, Cynthia Coe

  53. The Day I Became a Mother, Dorothy Hill

  54. A Gift for Robby, Toni Fulco

  55. My Birthday, Her Party, Gerilynn Smith

  56. A Change in Plans, Kerrie Flanagan

  57. Love by Choice, Shirley Pease

  ~Parenting Wisdom~

  58. Teaching Them to See, Janet Eckles

  59. Dear Daddy..., Linda Saslow

  60. Why Monks Sit in the Snow, Joan Ryan

  61. It’s Only Stuff, Mary Treacy O’Keefe

  62. A Misfortune — Not a Tragedy, James A. Nelson

  63. Money!, Christine M. Smith

  64. Anniversary Celebration, Renee Mayhew

  65. I’m Gonna Write It on the Agenda! James McGinnis, Ph.D.

  66. Bonding with Notebooks, Katie Benson

  67. A Reason to Celebrate, Janet Lynn Mitchell

  68. The Wonder Years, Mayo Mathers

  ~Learning from the Kids~

  69. “Is It Fun Being a Mommy?” DeAnna Sanders

  70. Learning to Listen, Marion Bond West

  71. Happy Birthday, Jane!, Jane Robertson

  72. Making Room for Shooting Stars, Mark Crawford

  73. Let’s Go Bug Hunting More Often, Barbara Chesser

  74. Choosing Life, William Wagner

  75. A True Champion, Carole Yamaguchi as told to Anita Gogno

  76. Maple Leaf Wars, Nathalie K. Taghaboni

  ~Thank You~

  77. Spelling L-O-V-E, Bonnie Compton Hanson

  78. Reconnecting, Virginia Fortner

  79. One Wish, Rhea Liezl C. Florendo

  80. A Mother’s Love, Mary K. Schram

  81. Donuts, Gail Eynon

  82. Island Girl, Kelly Preston

  83. Somebody Else’s Children, Trudy Bowler

  84. Voicing My Wish, Theresa Goggin-Roberts

  85. The Things You Never Did, Lisa Inquagiato Benwitz

  ~It Takes a Village to Raise a Child~

  86. Swans Mate for Life, Hal Torrance

  87. Love at First Sight, Laura Lawson

  88. Alone Together: A Grandmother’s Tale, Sally Friedman

  89. Same Agenda, Patricia Pinney

  90. Of Needs and Wants, Bob Welch


  91. Grandmother’s Language of Love, Trudy Reeder

  92. The Family in My Heart, Michelle Lawson

  93. Three Times the Lover, Sherry Huxtable

  ~No Place I’d Rather Be~

  94. Alaska Time, Nancy Blakey

  95. Ricochet, Linda Watskin

  96. Falling in Love with Molly, Liz Mayer

  97. Sonar, Linda Mihatov

  98. Sugarplums, Ken Swarner

  99. A Mother’s Day Review, Paula (Bachleda) Koskey

  100. Goose Island, Tom Lusk

  101. My Children, Donna J. Calabro

  MORE CHICKEN SOUP

  WHO IS JACK CANFIELD?

  WHO IS MARK VICTOR HANSEN?

  WHO IS AMY NEWMARK?

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A Special Foreword

  by Jack and Mark

  For us, 101 has always been a magical number. It was the number of stories in the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, and it is the number of stories and poems we have always aimed for in our books. We love the number 101 because it signifies a beginning, not an end. After 100, we start anew with 101.

  We hope that when you finish reading one of our books, it is only a beginning for you too — a new outlook on life, a renewed sense of purpose, a strengthened resolve to deal with an issue that has been bothering you. Perhaps you will pick up the phone and share one of the stories with a friend or a loved one. Perhaps you will turn to your keyboard and express yourself by writing a Chicken Soup story of your own, to share with other readers who are just like you.

  This volume contains our 101 best stories and poems about parenting. We share this with you at a very special time for us, the fifteenth anniversary of our Chicken Soup for the Soul series. When we published our first book in 1993, we never dreamed that we had started what became a publishing phenomenon, one of the bestselling series of books in history.

  We did not set out to sell more than one hundred million books, or to publish more than 150 titles. We set out to touch the heart of one person at a time, hoping that person would in turn touch another person, and so on down the line. Fifteen years later, we know that it has worked. Your letters and stories have poured in by the hundreds of thousands, affirming our life’s work, and inspiring us to continue to make a difference in your lives.

  On our fifteenth anniversary, we have new energy, new resolve, and new dreams. We have recommitted to our goal of 101 stories or poems per book, we have refreshed our cover designs and our interior layout, and we have grown the Chicken Soup for the Soul team, with new friends and partners across the country in New England.

  In this new volume, we have selected our 101 best stories and poems about parenting from our rich fifteen year history. The stories that we have chosen were written by parents about their children and by children about their parents. There is a common thread of caring, humor, hard work, and joy of shaping young lives. New parents should enjoy these stories as they embark on their great adventure, and older parents will laugh, cry, and nod their heads as they recognize common experiences.

  We hope that you will enjoy reading these stories as much as we enjoyed selecting them for you, and that you will share them with your families and friends. We have identified the 40 Chicken Soup for the Soul books in which the stories originally appeared, in case you would like to continue reading about parenting and families among our other titles. We hope you will also enjoy the additional books about families, children, pets, and life in “Our 101 Best Stories” series.

  With our love, our thanks, and our respect,

  ~Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

  Preface

  The Smiley-Faces

  We moved into our dream house, the one with the gigantic sycamore tree in the backyard and plenty of room for our three boys to run around. We had wanted an older home for a long time and ours came with classic doorknobs, big, heavy window frames, thick walls and thick paint.

  We settled in and it became our home. Our home provided a studio office for my wife, Nina, and myself, a welcome change from commuting. I settled into my new studio and got down to work. We couldn’t have been happier.

  Jed is the youngest of my three boys and, at seven years old, moving into a new house was a grand adventure. I call him a hunter and gatherer. Hundred-year-old houses have many secrets to reveal.

  He dug wherever he could. He had several shovels and a metal detector. The backyard of an old house reveals many small treasures for eager young men. “Bumstead’s Worm Syrup: One Bottle has Killed One Hundred Worms. Children Cry for More. Try It.” medicine bottles from the 1800s, matchbox cars from the 1960s, bones, army men, and much more began to fill Jed’s many treasure chests.

  Bold and active, Jed is a free spirit. “All boy” as they say. Always smiling and willing to take a dare. He’ll tear anything apart to see how it is made. He tests everything to the limits and is not satisfied until he has carried out his plans. He’s a skater kid. Unafraid. He likes to get dirty and tell naughty jokes. He’s the first to jump off a roof and was recently busted for drawing his teacher as a Cyclops.

  Since I am a creative director and my wife is a writer, there is plenty of freedom of expression around our home and we encourage lots of creative discovery. So we celebrate Jed in all his glory.

  About nine months after we moved in, I made a creative discovery of my own. Indeed, hundred-year-old houses reveal many things. Each time I walk out of my office, I admire the bathroom door. They don’t make doors like that anymore. “Solid wood, cast iron hinges, porcelain knobs... I love this house,” I thought, as I usually do. And then I discovered it... two black dots and a curve in the middle of the right panel of my beautiful bathroom door.

  “Is it a scratch in the paint? It looks like marker... Is that a smiley face? It’s a smiley face on my beautiful bathroom door! Where the heck did that come from?”

  My middle son, Silas, always has a marker in his hand for illustrating epic battle scenes between robots and aliens. He’s not a smiley-face-drawing kind of artist. Jed. It had to be Jed because Noah is too old for that. Besides, Jed has been busted for drawing on the walls before!

  I go out to the family room and as I am sitting in front of our new coffee table stewing over the smiley-face, I notice a smiley-face is staring back at me from the coffee table. No. It can’t be... Yes. It is. Another smiley-face.

  I skirt the room... oh man... one on the side-chest. And one on the entertainment cabinet. Wait... that’s a sad smiley-face. And here’s one that is sort of expressionless. Oh man.

  I went to Nina. We looked at each other in astonishment with gaping mouths. Almost wordless. Our eyes locked and we both said, “Jed.”

  In the next second, we burst out laughing. We couldn’t contain ourselves. Traveling from one smiley-face to the next, examining the intricacies and character of each, we were crying tears of laughter.

  After Jed got home from school, we gathered in the family room. “Jed... I have a question for you... did you draw this on the new coffee table?”

  “Yes,” he said under his breath, bright red and rocking furiously in the rocking chair.

  “When did you do this, Jed?” I asked.

  “I dunno,” his face filling up and the chair bucking faster.

  “Why did you do it?”

  “I dunno. I guess I just wanted to draw a smiley-face.”

  “Did you draw a lot of these?”

  “Yes.” Barely audible, the chair going into hyperspeed.

  “How many?”

  “I dunno. Ten or six, or more, maybe.”

  I couldn’t help it. I burst into laughter. All of us were laughing. My heart became so full... Jed and his carefree spirit... I swooped him up in my arms and kissed him, almost crying. I put him to the ground and began to tickle him like I used to do when he was a baby. Squeals of delight filled the room. Images of him as a baby, always smiling, flooded my memory. We got up and went around the room together, laughing at all the smiley-faces.

&
nbsp; I never did punish him. I couldn’t. Those smiley-faces constantly remind me to appreciate the unique blessing each of my sons brings to our family. They were drawn with permanent marker, and what could be more fitting? Permanent marks on my life, expressions of who we are, making our marks along the way, on the world, and on each other’s hearts. Besides, now when Jed does something reckless or foolish, I find it easier to bear in mind his silly and impulsive nature.

  Now, when I walk out of my office and I admire that big, old, heavy bathroom door, I say something different... a smile crosses my face and I just say, “Jed.”

  ~Brian Taylor,

  Creative Director Chicken Soup for the Soul

  Postscript: When I learned of this title within the Chicken Soup for the Soul line of books, I knew immediately what I wanted to do... As I designed and produced this book, I placed Jed’s actual smiley-faces on random pages, giggling as I did it, so you can also appreciate the silly and impulsive nature of kids everywhere, and celebrate the blessings of parenthood.

  The Joys of Parenting

  You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around — and why his parents will always wave back.

  ~William D. Tammeus

  The Day It All Came Together

  Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside.

  ~Rita Rudner

  March can be cold in Texas. I hadn’t expected that. A transplanted Yankee, by way of a slight if forgivable detour through Virginia, I viewed Texas with the same avidity I did a pit viper. In my imagination, Texas was a land of endless deserts. Rattlesnakes curled up on the porch, and armadillos wandered the streets. My move to San Antonio, courtesy of the Air Force, to which I owed my time if not my soul, might as well have been a one-way shot to the moon.

  It was in that alien landscape of cacti, fire ants, scorpions, armadillos, rattlesnakes, and a purposeful, somewhat lunatic roadrunner that traversed our cul-de-sac every afternoon at three without fail, that I became pregnant with our first child. We hadn’t exactly been trying, but we hadn’t exactly been careful either. We had sidled up to parenthood gradually, practicing first on three cats and a golden retriever. The baby was conceived during a playoff game between the Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears, somewhere in the third quarter, around the twentieth yard line of the Bears. The Redskins went on to win the Super Bowl that year, a prelude of things to come, and after our initial astonished exchange (“Are you sure?” “Of course, I’m sure. Look, the stick is blue!”), we accepted that the pregnancy just was, like morning coffee or taxes.