Slightly Off-Balance

I am a very lucky girl, I have a fantastic circle of friends.  Each of my friends are treasured for different reasons, but I have one best friend.  The person I tell everything to, without fear of judgement.  The one who knows all of my multiple personalities, who understands I am slightly off-balance (sometimes more). 

I miss my best friend.  I miss the long relaxed dinners, the impromptu cocktails, the inside jokes.  I miss the ability to completely focus on each other when we’re together.  That time is now filled with work and kids.  We’re trying to juggle being high performers (because anyone else collects pink slips) and the worlds best parents (because anyone else raises demons).  We try to do the best we can for everyone, everyday and the cost is our friendship.  There isn’t time for long relaxing dinners (unless you count chicken nuggets and Capri Sun over the noise of the kids).  Impromptu cocktails are doable, but kids have a very low appreciation for hangovers.  Inside jokes are replaced by kids humor because we don’t do anything not related to our kids.

What we do get is the bond of being parents, of understanding each others hopes and fears for our children.  Will our kids like Kindergarten, will they be good students, will they look both ways when we eventually let them cross the street by themselves – is 25 the right age? 😉 

We hope that our friendship will still be there when we come out of the other side of the parenting vacuum.  Will we have grown apart?  Will we still enjoy each others’ company?  We don’t know the answer but we talk about it, we squeeze in the rare time for just the two of us, we promise to keep an eye on our friendship.  We know other best friends who haven’t fared as well and we try to learn from them.

My best friend is my husband and we live in the same house.