I recently had a text conversation with a friend who, despite our similarities in family size, is the polar opposite of myself.  Seriously.  However, I value our friendship and enjoy conversing because we can relate to each other on a strictly “more is better” philosophy. For me it’s fantastic to hear that she finds clothes still on the hanger in the dirty laundry and old apples under beds, and half drunk sodas (soda that was snuck, mind you) in dresser drawers.  Having a friend who can relate to the chaos and the choices and does not say, “Well you chose to have 11 kids” when I’m having a moment of weakness is such a blessing.  Having a friend who can put me in my place when I’m venting is invaluable.  And, having a friend who can offer solace when I am complaining about driving a “big ass” van is priceless.

But that is seriously where our similarities end.  We parent differently, our kids couldn’t be more different and what we see for them in the future is vastly different.  But this makes things interesting and sometimes, just sometimes, my perspective on things is altered.  You can almost always count on some sort of “disagreement” when we find time to chat.  And the other night was no different.  Both of us are solid in our parenting, we can’t be swayed and we know what we are doing is right for our family.  So last night when we were talking about  her kids the subject of  college came up.  Her family lives in FL and her oldest son applied to CU Boulder and was waiting for a response.  Kerry applied there, she was early accepted  and she is still trying to decide what it is that she wants to do.  For us that is a 4-hour distance, for them, it’s a 33-hour distance.  I off-handedly said I hope all our kids stay close, which started a conversation about hopes and dreams that our kids have for themselves and that which we have for them.   A lofty conversation for a text message, for sure, but we didn’t get too deep, primarily because I have self-inflicted ADD and forgot I was texting her in the middle of this conversation and partly because you can’t argue with either of us, we are typically right!  An admirable quality in a mom, for sure!