On Villages
The running joke is that we need to move into a commune. We've got a chef, a nurse, people who love to clean, people who can entertain kids for hours, teachers ... everything. We have every skill covered. If you took the entire group of people I consider friends and rolled us all into a castle hidden behind very tall walls, we could absolutely live happily ever after without any help from the outside world.
The "happily ever after" thing is a little odd, for what it's worth. It shouldn't be possible, but it definitely is.
We're just all so ... different. I marvel at it sometimes. I wonder how it is that so many people who are from such different backgrounds and have such varying interests can end up getting along as well as we do. But, well, we do. We go at life in very unique ways, but we all end up in the same place.
And Alexis adores every single one of us.
I don't know if it's normal for a kid to consider her mom's friends her own friends, but there it is. She does. Alexis asks about my friends, looks forward to seeing them, and legitimately likes hanging out with them. Sometimes she's a jerk and steals them from me for a few minutes, but mostly it's a good thing.
They are her village.
Alexis knows who she can ask for expert advice on cooking. She knows who is best equipped to deal with her many (imaginary) injuries. She depends on different people for different things. It's pretty spectacular, if we're being honest.
That's how it came to be that I didn't sit with my own kid at a baseball game this past Sunday. Before the game began, Alexis paged through the program and found the score page. She leaned over and asked me to explain how it all worked to her, but I was useless. I've played softball plenty and can read a score card, but I have absolutely no idea what goes in which square and why.
Upon learning I know nothing about how to score a baseball game, Alexis pondered her options. It took her about 3.5 seconds to come up with a solution -- she would ask her village. In a flash, she made a whole bunch of people switch seats so she could huddle up with the baseball scoring expert in our village. She spent the majority of the game learning how to record a fly out to left field and a base hit and all of that good stuff.
It takes a village to raise a kid, and I'm so very glad we have one.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Reader Comments (4)
I just got back from dinner with my village. So awesome! :-)
That is so very fantastic. Sounds like you all are very blessed with your village.
You are very blessed. Enjoy. I'm on an island.
considering the talented folks you know, i am not really sure what i bring to the village, but there is no place i would rater be. and i adore that your beautiful babe enjoys my company. because i sure as shit enjoy hers. yours, too.