Tradeoff was the prompt today. I had to think a little while, but what jumped immediately to mind was what I ended up writing about, a common enough dilemma for a mom. When I was a young married, though, it never seemed the father had to make the same difficult decisions. I think (I hope) things are better now.
Silhouettes on a Stage, by EKDuncan
The Important Things Aren’t Things
Things I loved when I was young:
Singing
Dancing
Theater
Reading
Writing
And I was in plays, musicals,
whatever they had at the local
theater. I learned all aspects
from the acting and singing and performing
to the set construction, costuming and directing.
And then I had children.
The choice was to continue
the way I had been,
though that would have meant
a lot of time away from the little ones,
or to leave behind my first loves
to be with my children.
The choice was actually still painful,
even though I knew it was the right one.
Things I loved when I was a little older:
My kids
Singing (children’s songs)
Dancing (around the house with them)
Theater (puppets usually)
Reading (bedtime stories)
Writing (just for me)
And the loss of one kind of focus
was more than made up by focusing instead
on what was really important.
Things I love now that I’m done raising kids:
My kids
Singing (in a band)
Dancing (at weddings)
Theater (at the office)
Reading (as much as I like)
Writing (more than ever)
Totally worth it.
Drift of Bubbles 
Thanks for this beautiful post. It’s hard to balance it all, and mothering requires sacrifices. It’s neat to see how your loves transferred over to your kids, though, and how you’re reviving those passions now.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. Sometimes mothering IS a hard choice, but so worthwhile. And the passions don’t really go away, they just become channeled in another direction.
I can so completely relate to this one. This was poignant and beautiful.
You have kids, I think, so you probably do understand. ❤ Thanks, Mosk.
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