Being an only child

I love my Mom so very much and thought the world of my dad. We had a great relationship while I was a kid and have been close even after I was "grown".  And I know part of the reason we are that way is because I am an only child but there are many times that I really wish I had a brother or sister. I've heard people say when they became a mom or dad it was an amazing feeling because you knew this person - the child - depended on you for everything. I've never been struck by that emotion with Darby. I guess it's because being an only child makes you be responsible even before you're a parent.

I took the day off last Tuesday. Mom called around 7 a.m. and said she needed to go to the doctor. The night before she'd had some pains after dinner and they got worse during the night. She'd been checking her blood pressure and it wasn't too terribly high but the pains weren't going away. She didn't think it was her heart but she didn't like the way she was feeling. So she asked me to go with her to the doctor in case it was something serious or they needed to run tests. Luckily Darby was in a good mood so she went with us and slept almost the entire time we were at the doctor's office. Mom's doc told her she was having esophagus spasms and gave her some prilosec which is used to treat heartburn. They also took some blood to check her cholesterol. After the doc visit we had lunch, stopped by Petco and went to pharmacy to get her medicine. Darby was asleep so I stayed in the car with her while Mom went in. When she came out I went to start the car and the battery was dead.

Lately my mom and I have been having this issue with both of our vehicles where our battery will suddenly go dead. We'll be sitting in the car listening to the radio and then when we go to start the car all we'll get is a clicking sound. Both times it happened to me I was at Sonic during my lunch break and I had to get one of the guys I work with to come and boost me off. The first time was last summer when I was pregnant and the second was during a cold snap back in January. It happened to Mom once at Sonic too so she and I were both scared of Sonic for a while. Both of our cars are Hondas so I'm beginning to wonder if that has something to do with it. My mom's car is relatively new. It's a 2009 and she doesn't do a whole lot of driving so it just seems early for her to need a new battery. We bought my battery in 2008 or 09 so it might be time for mine to be replaced but I don't know. It's very strange.

So after we discovered the battery was dead. My mom and I just looked at each other and I know we were thinking the same exact thing.... Who can help because we don't have anyone to call anymore. I knew we had jumper cables in her car we just needed another car to hook them up to. Mom went back in the pharmacy to see if someone would mind moving their car over so we could get a boost. Luckily one of the pharmacists had a booster pack in her SUV. She just brought it over and it worked super quick. (Mom was really impressed and ended up buying one Friday night out of necessity because her battery is dead again. Guess she really does need to replace it.)

We went back over to my house Tuesday afternoon and I encouraged Mom to make some calls or run any errands that she couldn't when she was alone with the baby. I figured it would be a good time to get some stuff out of the way since she's still trying to get some of Poppaw's things straightened out. Sometimes I have to give my mom a little nudge. If she was doing something for me she'd do it right away. But with her own stuff she can get bogged down and it just seems to depress her. I know it's not easy for her. And even tho I have a tendency to procrastinate my mom can be worse. The older I get the more I find myself pushing her to finish things and jumping in to do them myself when I see she's overwhelmed.

There are great things about being an only child. At an early age you learn to be responsible and realize that you have to be accountable for your own actions. You learn to be self-reliant and independent. But it's lonely. And when you're an adult and things start happening to your parents it's scary. I guess what makes it worse is that I'm an only child of an only child. It's easy to feel alone.

Hopefully, in a year or two (or three), we will give Darby a little brother or sister. I made the decision a long time ago that I would have at least two kids. But I also swore I would have kids when I was young because I hated having older parents. My mom and dad were 33 and 35, respectively, the year I was born. That's not such a big deal anymore. I have several friends my age who had kids this year and there are more who aren't ready to start families but will soon. So hopefully by the time baby #2 gets here there will be another baby surge and he/she will have plenty of friends with 30-something parents.