For the children

My son looks so happy when he is running through the apartment from room to room, some random toy in hand, with a huge smile on his face. He is just a little guy and he is a very happy one.
He lives in a home where pictures of him adorn the walls – his possessions have taken over the place and the TV is always tuned in to Treehouse.
He is the center of this little universe. He is the sun – to his father and me, anyway.
He is our only one.
Our son is one of the few whose parents are still together, it seems. A lot of people just don’t stay with the person they reproduce with, and for a lot of reasons.
Let’s face it: love is harder than Taylor Swift’s sappy music makes it sound like.
When I found out that I was pregnant, I wondered what would happen to my boyfriend and me.
I wondered if we would break up, since most of the females I knew who had children were no longer with the person they had gotten pregnant by.
I wondered if I would be a single mother.
I don’t mean to stereotype, but so many of my fellow-Anishinabe friends, peers, and family members are single parents. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would wind up the same.
Would I find someone else to be with if we broke up? And how would that go if I did find someone else? Would I simply allow someone new into my life, and most importantly my child’s life?
Sometimes single parents invite people into their children’s lives without really thinking about it – loneliness and heartache are hard to cure so it’s easier to let someone into your heart and home when you are hurt.
Sometimes those people who are let in don’t deserve to be there. I often hear of children being abused by their step-parents, it is such a sad and scary reality.
When I first got pregnant, I wondered what would happen to me and to my unborn child. How could I trust anyone in this world with my child if his father and I broke up?
As of today, it turns out that I didn’t have to worry about things like that.
My boyfriend and I are still together. We have worked hard on our relationship and sorted out our issues. We changed certain aspects about our lives for our son when he was born.
We are on a better, less-selfish path now to give our child the life he deserves because he is our responsibility. He was a gift from above.
That’s what children really are – gifts from the Creator. They are the closest things to Heaven.
As a mother, it is my duty and privilege to protect and nurture my child. It is my job to
keep all the bad things away, to hold him when he is scared and to make him laugh when he is sad. It’s my job to change his diaper when he, well everyone knows what’s done in diapers.
And my son’s father has all the same responsibilities and privileges - only with seemingly-less diaper duty.
Our small family works because there is an unlimited amount of love. My boyfriend and I come from broken-homes, and though that sometimes seems like a reason to “stay together for the kid” it wouldn’t work because families do not work for long without love.
When love is lost between two people, they will part ways. They will find love elsewhere.
My boyfriend and I are lucky to still have love together, to still have our son together.
It’s like the lyrics in a certain Barry Louis Polisar song; “if you were a castle, I’d be your moat. And if you were an ocean, I’d learn to float.”
Our son is the “castle” that we have to protect, and he is the “ocean” that we have to learn to swim in as parents.
Keep your castles safe.