My Future Lego Incident

Parenthood. A word that can make that spot in your stomach quiver, make you sick and nervous. It's that pit of unchangeable elements all gathered together to make you realize that the upcoming part of your life is not changeable.

Having kids was never on my menu of "Things I Wanna Do" and even though I love kids, I was never keen on hospitals so entering one voluntarily was never on my mind.

Looking now at my beautiful son I wouldn't have changed anything. However, there is still this looming realization that he's going to get bigger and he's going to have more toys. It makes me think back to when I was a kid and my Mom would get mad at us for leaving our toys everywhere. Eventually, we stopped doing it, but how many toys did my Mom step on before we actually did stop leaving our toys everywhere?

That brings us to Legos. Whoever invented legos deserves a medal and a whipping at the same time. While they are the premier toy for little builders, they are also a parent's worst nightmare. I feel Lego's will be the bane of my existence.

Somewhere, right now, there is a future me stepping on legos. Maybe more than one lego. Of course, he won't just have legos... nope... he'll have Linkin' Logs, Kinectx, and at some point, other toys that I'm sure will suck to step on too.

While I don't plan on just letting my son leave his toys all over Kingdom Come, (like my Dachshund) there will be times during play where his toys will be in my path. Currently, I'm on the hunt for a very attractive toy box and I will record my findings. I feel this is the only way to prevent the future lego incident that awaits me in the future.

Maybe he'll pack his favorite toys in his Radio Flyer like I did when I was a kid. Of course, I also tried to kill my brother in our Radio Flyer by shoving him and it down a tall grassy hill. Don't worry... I failed.

Of course, he'll have a Teddy. I had several Teddy's and they were all my best friends. I even had a little Tigger that I'm pretty sure used to be a coin purse. He lived in my pocket when I was in 3rd grade. I used to pretend he had a little home in there. What's hilarious is he used to give commentary during the Pastor's sermons. I recall nothing of those sermons... only Tigger's dialogue.

Our son will go to church with us of course, but I believe God doesn't reside solely in the church. He is everywhere, so while the church will be important I'm not going to make this "You have to go to church or else" speech. Maybe that will keep me from stepping on legos. Either that or I'll just have to wear shoes everywhere. I hate wearing shoes in the house. It's the one place I don't have to worry about stepping on something odd.

In the end I know that even though I really don't like Lego's, they will be beneficial to my son. They will teach him to think creatively, to build without boundaries, and to question the limits of what can and can't be accomplished. He's very smart... even right now at 4 months old he loves to watch Baby Einstein and is fascinated by the sounds, pictures, and puppets. So, I suppose for the sake of encouraging his creativity I'd be willing to step on a lego... or two.

I'm reminded of my favorite poet, or one of them anyway, Robert Frost and in his Poem "Fire and Ice" he says some things that could be equated to my love/hate relationship of legos.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

- Robert Frost

Why does this mean so much to me? I suppose like a lot of poets I express myself through writing. My fears, excitement, joys, and sorrows are all depicted through words. Though Frost is speaking about the end of the world in his poem, like art poetry means something different to everyone. To me, this poem is saying, while there is one way to perish, the other might be just as bad. Soooo.... while Lego's may suck there could be something worse.

May you walk the road less traveled

- Robert Frost