Parenting Test

How well I remember those days.

As I watch our daughter deal with a seemingly never ending series of trips to doctors offices and hospitals in search of an answer to her daughter's illness, I remember the stresses of early parenthood.

I remember the endless hours of rocking and soothing, and the nights spent with one ear ever alert to plaintive cries.

I remember the gurgle and hiss of vaporizers fighting congestion and the rushing of water into tubs in combat with fevers.

I remember the weak whimpers carrying pleas for comfort and the piercing cries of outright pain.

Parenting will either give you the stamina of a Corinthian column or spin you around like a pebble in a raging river.

It is a lifelong test, parenting. A test shelled out in parcels, some easily accomplished and some requiring Herculean endurance. It's a must, this gradual building of success upon success, for if you were permitted a glimpse of the entire course from the outset you would surely find yourself beaten before you started.