Children have no idea . . .

how it felt to hold them for the very first time, to look into eyes that had been hidden by a belly and now were open, looking up at you, bright and intelligent.

Children have no idea how having their soft arms wind around your neck felt as you carried them upstairs to their big boy beds and lay next to their warm bodies to read them a favorite story.

Children have no idea how just seeing them get off the bus and lumber over to your car could lift your heart, even as they mumbled something unintelligible in response to your question, “How was your day?” Even then.

Children have no idea how easy it is to give them anything they ask for. How the proverbial sacrifice of being a parent is often nothing more than an obvious choice to give something unimportant to the people you love more than life itself.

Children have no idea how they can break their parents’ hearts no matter how much time has passed since childhood with a careless comment or a long silence and restore it in a few seconds with a hug or a text.

They have no idea, until they are the parent.

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