You know how when you were a kid and would wonder what it would be like to be an adult? What you would look like, how tall you would grow, how big your boobs would be. Or even now…. can you picture yourself as an old person? Really relate to what it would feel like to be in an 80 year old body with no teeth and a cane to beat up squirrels?

It is the same thing with being a parent. Even after I gave birth I couldn’t believe that the hospital was going to let me take her home with me… unsupervised! It was so hard to picture myself as a mom even though I technically was one.

A good friend from childhood came to visit me over the weekend and she kept saying how crazy it was to see me as a mother. For her, spending time with The Munch felt like we were babysitting. Seeing my life from her perspective, it became so hard for me to fathom that I am 100% responsible for another human and not just the temporary au pair.

Holy crap! That is a lot of pressure!

In life, we end up playing all these different roles throughout. At first someone’s child, maybe a sibling, then a friend, lover, co-worker, spouse, parent… grandparent. As a child, I never thought about how I was going to act as a daughter, or a sister. I just did what I wanted and suffered the consequences. My family was going to love me no matter what… or at least pretend to. But as you age, you have to start becoming more conscious about these different roles. What kind of friend do I want to be? How do I want to treat people I work with, or sleep with? Hopefully these are not the same people because that gets messy. What kind of partner am I? Am I too selfless, amazing and humble? What kind of parent do I want to be? How am I going to raise The Munch to be the most outstanding Munch in the universe, because who knows what aliens she is going to have to compete with to get into a good college? What kind of grandmother will I be? Well… I already know the answer to that. The kind that has lipstick on her teeth, pretends she can’t hear you, and eats all your dessert.