BTW, anyone: does that ever go away?

Not for me so far. In fact, it seems to be getting worse as they get older.

Get older? Hmmmmm....

I agree wholeheartedly, and mine's only 8!

I was just thinking a couple days ago, as I picked her up from summer camp and we held hands walking to the car, that I wonder how much longer this hand-holding stuff is going to last before she wants to walk 10 steps in front/behind me...

It is good to hear about so many people working hard to be good parents. I tend to see far too much of the other end of the spectrum. For example, in the apartment complex where I live we are often overrun by poorly behaved children whose parents seem to not be very concerned with their children. I don't believe I'm judging the parents too harshly; I truly can't envision concerned parents allowing unsupervised seven-year-old children to run around screaming outside at eleven o'clock at night (night after night).

I want to congratulate and thank all of you who have learned to care for your children and work in their best interests. The intelligence and love apparent in these posts is most laudible. We need more people like yourselves, worthy of the title "parent."

Not every who has kids at a young age "grows up very fast." My husband's parents were both 20 and not exactly mature when he was born, or when his brother was 2 years later. The parents divorced within a few years and neither of them really made the kids a priority (obliviously exposing them to everything from horror movies to abusive step-parents), and when the boys reached their teen years and their mother realized that they were going to require actual work and patience, she kicked them out to live with their grandmother. :mad: A few years later, she and her current husband adopted two kids from a family member who couldn't take care of them, and when they got to be rebellious teens, off they went to live with their grandmother. My husband and his brother turned out just fine thanks to their incredible grandparents; I can only hope for the same for the adopted kids.

At 22, I definitely feel the pangs of the maternal instinct (especially since a friend of ours recently had an adorable baby), but I know that I'm not ready to have kids for a few more years. I can see myself fucking up in some of the same ways that my MIL did, like wanting to spend time with my friends without realizing that my child needed company, or resenting my kids because I couldn't go out and party like I wanted to. For now the plan is to get a kitten or a puppy, finish school, and stay on birth control until I'm damn sure.

Yeah Hime. It's so weird. Some kids could have the best parents that they feel extremely close to and have a great family relationship--whereas others have neglectful parents whom they wish more than anything to just be rid of them and legal rights at the age of 18. I know both. Family can everything or nothing, depending on situations and people.