Post #135: This Blog is Growing Up with my Family

Just under a year ago, I posted my one hundredth blog entry and celebrated the accomplishment with a summary description of what this blog has been about and what I intended the blog to be about going forward. For forty-four months including this month, I have been committed to delivering three posts each month. They chronicled the most interesting things I observed as a parent and the kinds of things I was thinking about as a parent. Three posts per month worked for a long time. But I have come to the conclusion that time has ended.

With Philip and his peers maturing rapidly and my parenting role in Philip’s life waning, I anticipate less original and meaningful thought to emerge. To continue with three posts per month would risk either repetition or lower quality. Instead, the lever to press to bring things back into equilibrium is the volume lever. Beginning next month, I plan to deliver only two posts per month.

The years ahead will chronicle Philip finishing high school, entering and completing college. Chloe will finish middle school and high school and will depart for college. My commitment to a ten year blog still stands.

It is becoming clear to me that Chloe’s experience as a girl will be vastly different from her brother’s experience. Likewise, Chloe is simply her own person who happens to be very unlike her brother. While Philip’s senior year of high school and college years will no-doubt generate material worth chronicling, the focus of this blog will shift to Chloe going through adolescence. Her thirteenth birthday is just a few weeks away. She’s experienced a full year of middle school and seen her body deliver signs she is developing into a woman. The social dynamics in Chloe’s life also continue to develop. School is important to Chloe but her closest friendships are what occupy most of her attention.

As a parent, the shift from primarily concerning myself with a boy adolescent to a girl adolescent has already begun. It seems the more difficult job—at least for me as a father. I’m glad I had Philip first to prepare me. The adventure continues!