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I'm not going to say that summer has come to Chicago. It's only June 7th and it still could snow again so....let's just say we've had few days lately when it's been sunny and warm. Just because we went to the Big Box Home Store and bought two new air conditioners does NOT mean that we will need them! We're just making sure we're prepared.I can say, however, that we spent the last two weekends cooking out with friends. These friends have yards and are kind enough to invite us over.
You know what's weird? We don't have any friends with kids AND a yard. So when our child-free friends invite us over for the cookout, we are the first ones there and the first to leave. And the only ones who are up and down from the table every five seconds getting someone juice or cleaning up a spill or helping a child go potty. Everyone else gets to sit there with a beer in their hand, plowing into the guacamole.
I trust that eventually the children will be able to do these things for themselves. And THEN I will be able to spend my time at the barbecue, sitting at the table with a beer in my hand enjoying the sun and the conversation.
Fortunately we do have friends who are kind enough to invite us and our active children over for some cookout action. And when we get there, every single time, I have yard envy,
Picture this: we get to our friend's house. My daughter knows where the sprinkler is and can set it up herself. She does so and spends an hour spraying things and getting wet in the sprinkler. Then she spends some time digging with her shovel and bucket. After that, she runs around and tries to do cartwheels. The little one has brought her tricycle. She can't really pedal it through the grass but she likes to sit on it. The yard is fenced so I am not worried about either of them running off.
Our friend has a thriving backyard garden full of chard, brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, tomatoes, beans, and a few other things. He talks about getting chickens next year.
I am panged with yard envy.
I would LOVE to have a space where I can send the children outside to play by themselves. We have a huge, beautiful park out our back door and across the alley. We also have a community garden across the street from us. BUT -- I can't send the kids to the park by themselves. If one wants to go to the park, we all go. If the baby is taking a nap, my five-year-old is stuck in the house with us.
So yeah, I have yard envy.
But you know occurred to me?
I get to enjoy that friend's yard a handful of times each year. I see it in the summer after he has spent I don't even know how many hours mowing and weeding. He had a drainage problem over the winter that was expensive and time-consuming to fix. Those vegetables don't weed themselves. And the six months of the year that we have snow here he has to shovel out the path all the way to the garage. The window of time he gets to spend enjoying his backyard and grilling duck with his friends is MUCH shorter than the window of time that it's raining or snowing or just generally gross outside.
Envying someone's awesome yard is a bit like envying someone else's awesome marriage or awesome kids. Because it's not yours, you don't see the hard work and effort it takes to keep it looking so nice and being so pleasant for the short time you're there.
I don't know about yards but with kids, the effort to awesome ratio is about 10:1.
Maybe I have the best of both worlds. I can enjoy my friend's yard without ever having to mow, weed, shovel snow, replace fencing, or worry about whose tree it was that just fell on the neighbor's car.
Now if I could just convince my friend to have some kids so I can drop mine off over there. THAT would be perfect.
06 Jun, 2011
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Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/little-kids-big-city/2011/06/yard-envy.html
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