Monday OT #1 - You Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone

[Angie]

Thanks to @madguy30 for both the suggestions to do Monday OTs here in the off-season, as well as the following ideas!

What are things you have a deeper appreciation for later in life after they've happened?

Like, for me - fighting my children to take a nap has made me realize how absolutely dumb kids are to not relish taking a nap every day of their life. It's also sort of magical to have people chauffeur you around before you're 16, and we don't realize how good we had it until we're about 25.

What are yours?

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Thanks to @madguy30 for both the suggestions to do Monday OTs here in the off-season, as well as the following ideas!

What are things you have a deeper appreciation for later in life after they've happened?

Like, for me - fighting my children to take a nap has made me realize how absolutely dumb kids are to not relish taking a nap every day of their life. It's also sort of magical to have people chauffeur you around before you're 16, and we don't realize how good we had it until we're about 25.

What are yours?

With you on the napping, best thing ever as an adult.

 

[Clonefan32]

I went on the trip to France that was offered at my high school, and also went to Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in college. Both trips I probably goofed off a bit too much and took for granted the historical significance of some of the sites and how lucky I was to be getting to see them. I'd love to go back and re-do those trips as an adult.

 

[CYdTracked]

I hear you with the kids thing! My oldest is in kindergarten now and there are days she is cranky as heck that you wish she'd just take a nap so the rest of the day will go smoother but she'll fight you about it then wind up crashing hard later before bed time. Even if it's for 1 hour not only is that down time nice on the weekend but makes the rest of the day go better sometimes getting her to "recharge" for the rest of the day.

I think as you get older you look back in general you re-think some of the choices you made or opportunities you didn't take advantage of and wonder what would have happened if you did things differently but in the end I still wouldn't trade how things have turned out for me for anything. I guess if I have a deeper appreciation for anything now it's the amount of crap I probably gave my parents growing up and now that I am a parent myself you see things through different eyes than you did as a stupid teenager.

 

[mj4cy]

I went on the trip to France that was offered at my high school, and also went to Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in college. Both trips I probably goofed off a bit too much and took for granted the historical significance of some of the sites and how lucky I was to be getting to see them. I'd love to go back and re-do those trips as an adult.

I'm really glad I didn't really take in DC until I was 30. If I was 20 I would have just wanted to goof off. At 30, it was a great combination of sight seeing, immersing myself in history, good food and good drinks.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

A slower-paced life. There are pros and cons when you grow up on a farm in a small town, but I focused on the cons more when I was a kid. When I go back to visit my parents, I always get the same feeling of calmness when I get within 10 miles of my hometown.

 

[mj4cy]

A slower-paced life. There are pros and cons when you grow up on a farm in a small town, but I focused on the cons more when I was a kid. When I go back to visit my parents, I always get the same feeling of calmness when I get within 10 miles of my hometown.

I used to have that feeling with certain places. When I started at my job, the learning curve was beyond stressful. Sleepless nights over and over. I'd go to my grandparents and the worries were left at the door.

 

[Colorado]

I'm going to get a little deep here and say that having a single mom raise me that was absent a lot of my high school years. At the time, I thought all of that freedom was a good thing for a teen to have and in some ways it was a good thing. But I realized during my time at ISU that I was behind in many ways when it came to social dynamics and having a support network to navigate things like college and all that entails.

In retrospect, it would have been better to have someone on my team to help me through things. I'm making sure my daughter doesn't have this issue now that she's in high school. She will never question that we are here for her.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

I'm really glad I didn't really take in DC until I was 30. If I was 20 I would have just wanted to goof off. At 30, it was a great combination of sight seeing, immersing myself in history, good food and good drinks.

We went to DC when we were kids. While I appreciated it, I'm sure I would have a greater appreciation now. Same with the Peabody Museum at Yale University. As kids you loved the dinosaur exhibit more than anything and everything else was secondary.

 

[SCyclone]

When I was younger (lot of responses starting this way!) I remember watching my parents work hard.....not just their regular jobs, but at home and on weekends, too. I remember thinking "No way in hell I'm going to be like that."

Guess what? Yeah, I inherited the Protestant work ethic, too. And it's not a bad thing.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I have to go with Thanksgiving. As a kid it was always kind of a ho hum holiday compared to Christmas but adult Brasky is a big Thanksgiving fan. It's just such a chill holiday full of great food and drinks. Whats not to like? It generally feels way less hectic than Christmas as well.

 

[cowgirl836]

NAPS. Going to bed. Staying Asleep. Sleeping in. Naps. Sleeping all night. Naps. Appreciating others pushing me around in a stroller. Hearing a sound in the middle of the night and thinking it was a burglar vs your kid waking up again. Being a kid and not having anything "to do".
Naps.

 

[MeanDean]

People who put up with juvenile MeanDean. And even encouraged me. I don't think if I met someone like me between ages 10-13 I would have been able to stand me for more than 2 minutes. Extended family, neighbors, teachers, church etc. I was a creep.

I honestly don't know how they did it. But thank God they did and I got through it.

 

[VeloClone]

It's also sort of magical to have people chauffeur you around before you're 16, and we don't realize how good we had it until we're about 25.

I am probably wired differently, but I have savored the independence from the moment I learned to ride a bike and it carried on through learning to drive. I always prefer driving myself over riding in the passenger seat. We took a driving family trip through 10 states and I drove every mile by choice.

 

[BCClone]

Having more money than I could truly appreciate then (single life). Got married and lost most of it, had kids and lost more than I had. Making 20 bucks but having to spend 25 sucks.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Now that we have 2 kids, my wife and I feel like we wasted our late 20's and early 30's. Should have traveled more. Should have gone out to bars/restaurants more.

We did a fair bit of traveling and going out, but now we'd kill for a weekend like that

 

[Angie]

NAPS. Going to bed. Staying Asleep. Sleeping in. Naps. Sleeping all night. Naps. Appreciating others pushing me around in a stroller. Hearing a sound in the middle of the night and thinking it was a burglar vs your kid waking up again. Being a kid and not having anything "to do".
Naps.

And, as a woman, just get used to never getting that sleep again. My children are long into sleeping through the night, but I don't because I can hear a pin drop three rooms away if one of them coughs. And once our kids move out, menopause will eventually steal all of our sleep-inducing estrogen, so then we just never sleep again. So that's fun.

 

[cowgirl836]

And, as a woman, just get used to never getting that sleep again. My children are long into sleeping through the night, but I don't because I can hear a pin drop three rooms away if one of them coughs. And once our kids move out, menopause will eventually steal all of our sleep-inducing estrogen, so then we just never sleep again. So that's fun.

Thanks for ruining the rest of my life, Angie!

Coworker due later this year with her first is like I'm hoping baby will be sleeping through the night by the time I come back to work but that's probably too optimistic. I'm like I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Angie]

Thanks for ruining the rest of my life, Angie!

Coworker due later this year with her first is like I'm hoping baby will be sleeping through the night by the time I come back to work but that's probably too optimistic. I'm like I wish you the best of luck!

I'm so sorry! Yeah, nobody ever told me about the estrogen thing until I had a surgery last summer that forces that, and it was PRETTY FUN TO FIND OUT. Guys have no idea how much better they have so many things. But, I mean, we don't have prostates, so I guess that's nice.

LOL. I love imagining what those first couple of months are going to be like for her.

 

[TXCyclones]

Extended family. My dad was the middle of 12 kids. So there were 52 of us first cousins growing up. My grandma was the nucleus of the family and most Sundays were spent at grandma's house with us idiots playing in the back lot and uncle's inside bs'ing while the aunts cooked. Grandma died in '94 and the extended family drifted to their respective corners of life. I miss this more than anything. Even when I travel back to central Iowa it's just not the same that it was and it sucks.