Choosing insanity

No matter what age your kids are, they're sure to drive you crazy. Newborns cry and exude noxious odors and bodily fluids. Toddlers are like mini-tornadoes. Elementary-age kids are little "why?" machines. Once they reach junior high school and the hormones start kicking in, your little darlings come home with wonderfully enhanced vocabularies and attitudes to match. Teenagers can be terrifying and heartbreaking and rage-inducing all in the space of a few minutes.

Still, being a parent is the most awe-inspiring ride I've ever been on. If a magical being appeared and offered me the chance to not have my kids, to forego the gray hair and wrinkles I've earned, to have all the rest and peacefulness of a life without kids might allow, I'd say no. I mean, I'd fantasize about having my pre-kids figure back and knowing where all my stuff is. I'm human, after all. But I'd still keep my life just as it is ... as chaotic and messy and emotionally draining and rewarding as it is.