Our Married Life Before We Had Children

We were married in August 1991. Meaghan, our first child was born in February 1997. That’s five and a half years of married life before we had children.

During our first year of marriage we were poor and busy. Heather was working and I was finishing up college, while also working as an assistant drama director. She would drop me off at school early in the morning and we wouldn’t see each other until late that night.

After our first year of marriage, things changed considerably. Though we were both occupied with different matters (work, school, and ministry), we were much less busy.

Looking back on it now, I wonder: “What on earth did we do with all the time we had on our hands?” This was especially true after I had made it semi-official to avoid the completion of my master’s degree.

I can remember eating ice cream each day, but, uh, I don’t think we ate that much ice cream to fill the hours of our day.

I guess we just did a lot of relaxing and reading and hanging out. Life before we had children was, uh, pretty weird, now that I think about it. Tune in on Wednesday to catch a glimpse of life as we know it now.

Once we decided it was time to have babies, it took us 30 months to conceive Meaghan. So by the time she was born, I had been longing for her so much that sometimes I have a hard time remembering life before her. Then, life before Nicolas joined our family.

Before we had kids…

we could sleep as late as we wanted.

we didn’t get morning cuddles with squirming wiggly giggly boys.

we could stay out late, which we usually did not.

we didn’t have an excuse to go home and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

we could eat what, when and where we wanted to.

we didn’t have comedy hour at meals, and breakfast tea never shot out of anyone’s nose.

we didn’t have to get up and get anyone breakfast.

We didn’t have anyone to tease about making us coffee and bringing it to us in bed, or giggle at the indignant response “I am just a young child!”

we didn’t have to set a good example for anyone else.

we didn’t have 2 little mirrors of our bad behavior that are the best conscience of all.

we had to walk the dog ourselves.

we didn’t have an 11-year-old who is turning into Miss Responsibility.

we read lots.

we didn’t read out loud with voices that cause giggling fits.

So yeah, all in all, I wouldn’t go back.