Parent For A Day

I had a good day with the kids (niece and nephew.) Sister was having a business lunch with her husband, so I gladly volunteered to pick them up after school and do their activities.

It was interesting being a "parent" for a day, mostly because I got to see this whole new world for a few hours today. And while I think that parenting is a universal thing, New York parenting seems to be on a completely different level.

It's nerve-wracking to be a New York parent. There just seems to be so much more danger at every turn. I felt my heart leap out of my chest a few times when I couldn't find my niece at the playground (little turd ran so damn fast when I turned around to her brother,) and started worrying about the germs they were picking up just playing in the sandbox.

But kids are amazing. Resilient. Fearless. Brazen. You almost have nothing to worry about.

Almost.

I think the one moment that made my day was this kid at the sandbox. I swear he must have been 4 or 5. He stood up in front of everyone and was pretending to be the host for a kids show, complete with sing-alongs. Now, there were at least 20 kids at the sandbox and almost as many parents. No matter how many or how few were paying attention, this kid just belted out song after song. Didn't care who was watching. Stayed in character the whole time. By the end of the second or third song, even I was clapping, just because I was impressed. Simply impressed.

Anyway, the three of us just had a ball. Soccer, pizza, ice cream (twice.) I'm a rad uncle. And I had fun driving them home during rush hour traffic. It was a nice Friday afternoon down Lexington Avenue.

We got home and I cooked dinner. Homemade pomodoro al fresco. With spaghetti. And somewhere along there I fell asleep for a quick nap.

So it was fun being a parent for a day. I'll be fine when I have kids. Just not in this city.

But you never know.