Parenting...the toughest job you'll ever....

With apologies to the Army for the blatent pilfering of the title, I feel obligated to express my current feelings about this crazy pursuit we call child-rearing. Rearing is right- that's where the pain is.

It probably isn't very nice to consider your kids as pains in the rearius endius, especially when in truth, they are gifts and we are genuinely grateful for them. But when your older child has disgusting goop oozing from her eyes, a cough that shakes the foundation, and the general malaise that accompanies childhood illness, feeling grateful doesn't really spring to mind.

Add to that equation an infant, duly infected in part by the older child, with a nose that produces more mucus than it would seem possible for such a little head to hold, wake ups (12 a.m. 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.) and a refusal to eat anything from a spoon and again, one must find SOMETHING to remind oneself of the gift that is parenthood.

I am thankful that most of the time, my kids are OK, and hopeful that these less-than-stellar days will be tossed into the memory trashcan, like used tissues....speaking of, gotta go wipe noses.