When I did my ten part series on the things that have been major factors in making me who I am today, I thought about finishing with a post about a few things – liberals tend to think in terms of “privilege”, right wingers might think of it as “hard work”, the superstitious might just call it “luck” – but wherever those things intersect, I have been very fortunate throughout my life with numerous lucky breaks, coincidences and happenstances combining to help me get where I am as much as any other factor in my life.
Of course, it all starts with the privilege stuff – that I was born in Canada, am male, am white, am from a middle class family. Heck, speaking of family, that my ancestors, not just through the past 10,000 years of humanity but really, back through the first single celled organisms *all* managed to reproduce to create a new generation that’s ultimately the biggest factor in my being here.
Or the fact that I’m fortunate that I have a strong family support system – Shea and I and our kids have four parents/grandparents who are all still alive and, for the most part, in decent health which pays off in everything from having people who support us in a variety of ways up to and including something as simple as being able to watch our kids when other babysitting options aren’t available (more on that below.)
I don’t know – maybe it’s just the human need to create patterns because many of these things might not seem lucky or fortunate if they hadn’t happened at all.
But I keep thinking of various things that have at least seemed lucky in my life – jobs that have fallen into my lap just when I needed, being picked for an England Exchange in undergrad, being accepted for grad school after I’d taken a fairly brave/stupid step of quitting a job I’d become quite frustrated at without any real “Plan B”. Even something silly – when we got to Li’l London in Ontario, I thought it was very handy that there was an Avis Rental outlet literally at the gates to the University just a few blocks from our apartment that we could easily access when needed since we didn’t take a vehicle with us. Then, just as I finished the year, a sign went up that this location was being closed. Lucky indeed!
We’ve had great luck with daycares/babysitters over the years as well – even getting into a decent daycare is a huge challenge then the first daycare centre we were in was *very* generous to us, charging us a daily rate instead of a monthly one when Shea had a variable part-time schedule which saved us hundreds and probably thousands over the years. Then, when they opened a second location for older kids that was closer to our house and more convenient, it was right when Pace was at an age when he was eligible to move and he got to go into a brand new centre with new toys, furniture and pretty much everything else. Then, when Pace started kindergarten, a lady only a few doors down had a spot open in her home daycare. This made it easier for him to get to school plus there happened to be three other boys who were Pace’s age already there so he got to hang out with kids who are still some of his best friends to this day.
Sasha followed a similar path – the same daycare as Pace while still in diapers then their satellite location closer to our house for older pre-schoolers then moving to that home daycare as she started kindergarten and just as Pace started staying home more having taken the “Home Alone” course.
Now that Pace has also taken the babysitting course, we were tossing the idea around of pulling Sasha from the home daycare and having both kids at home starting this summer. We were feeling guilty about pulling Sasha out but our babysitter made the decision for us announcing that she had decided to retire and was putting her house up for sale.
We’d known this day would be coming but not when so again, the timing felt absolutely perfect. Sasha had her last full day at her home daycare today and starting next week when school’s out will be using a mixture of staying home with her brother (with mom and dad home at noon to check they haven’t killed each other), going to her old daycare centre if Pace is busy and can’t babysit or summer visits to her grandparents.
Anyhow, which is all a long way to say “Thank-you Judy and enjoy the retirement!”
