I love our town

Having moved a lot while growing up, I was never given the chance to be from anywhere. I never quite know what to say when people ask me where I'm from. I usually answer with "Well, we moved to *medium sized town near here* when I was 14." That satisfies most people.

I have always been a little jealous when people talk about knowing someone since kindergarten, or graduating with someone they had a crush on in the sixth grade. That just wasn't my experience. Neither was other parents being involved in my life. I never had a set of surrogate parents to watch out for me. I think my mom was just trying to protect us but we never really got to know other families on that level. We just never lived in one place long enough to form those relationships. I'm not sad about it, it's just the way it was.

So it is a little strange for me to be in a place where I know enough people and know enough about those people to be comfortable with my children being in a relationship with them. Does that make sense? I live in a small town. I now know a whole slew of people that I would trust with my children without a moment's hesitation. That is a very good feeling.

Tonight my two older offspring each had a soccer game at the same time. One was in our hometown, the other in a town 15 minutes away. Of course the dilemma for me was how to manage being in two places at once. I thought about just letting Samantha wait for me to get back to pick her up but she would have been sitting at the soccer fields for at least 20 minutes, without anyone looking out for her. She is only nine and so I nixed this idea. But I knew in the back of my head that with all the people at the soccer fields on any given weeknight, there would undoubtedly be someone that she could hang with until I got there to pick her up. While I was talking to her about it, I was able to run off a list of about six or eight families that I knew would be there that I knew would have no problem watching after her. And as simple as it sounds, it gave me goosebumps to know that there is that parental comaraderie and we are actually a part of it.

When we got there, we found our substitute parent with no problem. She was glad to help and I completely trust her. And that is why I love my town. Because I also saw a handful of other parents who would have been just as willing to help. And that's comforting to me.

Have a great night!