Outside the room

Nobody ever told me how much of parenting consists of just sitting outside stuff. As I write this, on my iPhone, I'm sitting outside child#3's ballet class. I'm not complaining -at least here I get to sit in a proper parents' area with chairs and everything. Thursday night's sitting outside venue was Child#1's recorder and piano lesson and there my sitting outside is performed in the car. Fine in summer, not so good in winter when it is dark and cold. The best sitting outside gig in the family is of course sitting outside Stage by Stage, where Child#2 and Child#3 go on different days of the week. This is because the sitting outside takes place in the picturehouse coffe bar across the road. Hubby normally gets those gigs though- I find the car park intimidating and difficult to negotiate.

In a way sitting outside can be quite zen- sometimes I get work done. Sometimes I read. Sometimes I twitter. Me time (only not so 'me' as time in the gym or in the bath obviously). But I do wonder- is all this sitting outside a metaphor for parenthood generally? There's very little sitting outside with babies. We tend to be included in their social activities due to their inability to communicate or move independently. As they get older though we get progressively excluded. Right now I sit outside their schooling and activities- give it a few years and I'll be sitting outside their *lives* lookinging in, wistfully. That's the nature of the gig of course.