Tempus Fugit

**** Giveaway here*****

Tempus Fugit & why parents often make better grandparents.


21 years ago today at just 19 years of age at 0:05am I gave birth to twin number 1, Leanne Sheree, who weighed in at a good 5lb despite being 3 weeks premature.
At 0:14am she was followed by Stacey Lauren weighing in at 4lb 8oz.

For the next few months my husband seemed to adopt that 'slapped by a wet fish' look, probably wondering how the hell he had managed to go from having a slim, carefree wife at our wedding in July 1990 to being the parents of twin girls by the following March - lucky guy eh!
Oh and his wife was suddenly 4 stone heavier and had severe - O so severe - acne due to hormones!

Parenthood did not come naturally to either of us and I have to say we fell seriously short many a time learning as we went along.
I remember cooing over them as babies (cos that's what you do isn't it?) and eventually thinking ''it'll be nice when they actually do something''.
Then they 'did something' and we'd say "Can't wait for them to start crawling".
Then they crawled and we'd say "It'll be so much easier when they're walking" (yes, we reeeeally did think that).
Then they'd be walking and the next thing was "Can't wait for them to start talking properly, to hear their voices".
They started talking - apparantly! At least that's what Stacey & Leanne thought it was. You see twins have this whole other language that no one but they can understand and bizarely they DO understand it.  To us it was just a whole load of "ndjdfkfggitnoavgrt?jwicbo!!!!bjjb wss"
Along with this fabulous new language came Staceys realisation that she didn't just love dogs she wanted to be one! And be one she would! The next 3 years were spent with Stacey (and sometimes Leanne till she got bored) being a dog. Crawling on all fours, cocking her leg and pretending (thankfully) to pee, trying to eat from a bowl on the floor and to top it off if we told her off she'd growl at us - seriously growl! If we told her off more she'd bark at us - the growl was a warning apparantly!!!

So we figured 9 - 10 would be a good age, can't wait for that.
9 - 10 was a good age, Stacey had finally lost her 'being a dog phase' but then a couple of years later the hormones start to kick in - two girls going through the same stuff at the same time - it was haaaaard!
"Be nice when they're 16 and are a bit more independent".
16 comes round and all of a sudden they think they're adults!!!! They have no clue.

"Be nice in a couple of years when they're a bit older, wiser and more grown up". (We appear to have suddenly forgotten what it's like to be 18 years old)
So they hit 18 and are now legally adults. I can no longer use the long arm of the law to scare them from everything from dropping litter to swearing to drinking. (We should have just trusted that both girls know right from wrong anyway)
"Be better when they're 21 cos parents can stop worrying then, they're job is done right?"  Wow, did  we ever really believe that!
At 21 all you really do is worry about their future, mistakes they will make that you can't protect them from, moving out from the protection of their home, heartache, dangers and pervs in vans (still).
The boogey man suddenly seems as real as ever!

"Why can't they be 6 again? Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy?????"
We spent so many years looking forward to them being grown up that we didn't appreciate the actual growing up and that, right there is why, IMO parents often make better grandparents.
We actually do get a 'do over'.

We're lucky!
Stacey & Leanne have turned out to be young ladies we are proud to call out daughters.

Happy 21st birthday Stacey & Leanne - we love you always & forever - Mum & Dad xxxx