4th of July - Past and Future

Craig is gone again on his third week long trip of the month. I'm getting pretty tired of it but it could be worse and at least we got to enjoy a nice 2.5 days together celebrating the holiday. This year on the 4th we did what we did last year on the 4th so now it is a tradition and we will have to continue doing the same thing every year until we die. Not that it will be that hard because the tradition is watch a movie, then afterward pick up fried chicken and head to a park for a picnic. What can I say, we're simply people.

This year our choice movie was Wall-E. I say "our" choice but really it was my choice because if you notice the swear jar has been emptied (but after the Yankees beat the Red Sox is back up to 10 cents). I liked it, not quite a peppy as Finding Nemo and had a slight anti-walmart feel but as it wasn't too preachy we let that go and enjoyed it.

It actually makes a really good date movie. I noticed during my usual pre-movie people watching time that we weren't the only ones to think so, or even the only age bracket. I really hope that when we are in our 60s and 70s we will still enjoy going to see sweet movies together, holding hands and sharing popcorn.

Not surprisingly, we also saw lots of lots of children. While we really took a risk going to see a kids movie on holiday weekend during the afternoon, luckily the people behind us were also adults and not prone to kicking the back of our seats or spilling anything on us. But those weren't the only dangers we faced. Craig and I have talked about it and we both have agreed that I have to be very careful what situations involving lots of children that I expose him too. Too many Disney movies or trips to the fair and we will never have kids.(I could also add "spending more than 10 minutes in wal-mart" to that list but after chastising Wall-E for being anti-walmart, I would feel hypocritical so I won't)

I'm been around a lot of kids, obnoxious and not, so when I see kids demanding candy or throwing tantrums or calling their parents words that would cost craig $0.25 in his jar, I just blame the parents and call it a day. Poor Craig gets a little overwhelmed and while he tries to be good, the longer we are around brats the more inclined he is too say things like "You not totally set on having kids are you?" Yes, Craig, yes I am. But don't worry, we won't give our toddler 16 oz of coke and expect him to sit quietly for two hours then get mad at him for ruining our movie when he can't. And we won't let our daughter wear t-shirts with statements like "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" then wonder why she and her brother always fight.

If we combine our ideas of how our kids will act, we probably would be accurate. I think our kids will be perfect angels because we have all the answers and will be the best parents in the world. There, I said it - all you people with kids know that is what you used to think before you had kids and on some level I know I am wrong, but for the most part, I think I am right. Then there is Craig, who after Friday would probably be okay with never having to co-exist with children at all if he could be assured our retirement package was secure enough.

I wonder what it will be like for us to think back on this a few years from now, when we are loading up our kids in the mini van, in their matching old navy 4th of july t-shirts, to take them to a movie theatre on a busy holiday weekend when they have clearly had too much sugar (even though I will never give my children sugar) and try to prevent them from ruining some cute young couples date and scaring them off the idea of kids for life all the while thinking "Why are we doing this again? Oh yeah, it's our tradition."