The Joy of Caring

Reflections of a Daughter of the Silent Generation and Mother of Generation Y

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Time to Be Three

June 8, 2017

Our ten-year-old, done with elementary school and on his way to middle school, sat at the kitchen counter one early summer morning,

“You know what I don’t get?” he said to me.

“They start preparing us to be big when we’re only three.

We go to pre-school to get ready for kindergarten,

To kindergarten to get ready for first grade,

To first grade to get ready for second,

Second to get ready for third,

Third to get ready for fourth,

Fourth to ready for fifth,

And fifth for sixth.

Now there’s sixth for seventh,

Seventh for eighth,

 then eighth for ninth,

ninth for high school,

high school for college, and

college for your job.”

Our ten-year-old son, with the big blue eyes,

looked at me with clarity and asked,

“When does a three-year-old get to be three?”

—from Living Is for Living: A Caregiver’s Story

Having fun Gratitude, In the Moment, Millennials, Parenting terry@thejoyofcaring.com 2 Comments

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Comments

  1. Megan King says

    June 8, 2017 at 1:56 pm

    Oh Terry, your writing is so beautiful. Hard to believe we have two kids done with college. Matt is a strong and wise young man who will surely journey far in life because you and Doug gave him such strong roots.

    Reply
    • terry@thejoyofcaring.com says

      July 1, 2021 at 10:36 am

      What a treat that we knew each other’s kids, and each other, when they were little : )

      Reply

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I am Acadia Manset's granddaughter. Raised in Maine, graduated from Dartmouth College and Harvard Law, I have spent the last 24 years parenting. With our adult kids in the process of leaving the nest, my mom has moved in, leading to precious time and daily opportunities I never anticipated. I hope that this site will inspire insight and growth, humor and fun, questions and answers, for you and for me.

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Raised in Maine, I had spent the prior 24 years parenting, mostly in Wisconsin. With our adult kids in the process of leaving the nest, my mom moved in, from Maine, leading to precious time and daily opportunities I had never anticipated. I launched this site in 2017 as a way to share that experience, hoping to pass along what I was learning about Alzheimer's disease, to process the challenging parts, and to have some fun too. I never anticipated the way the community of readers would fuel me in staying the course. Today, I am deeply grateful for that, and so much more.

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