FAMILY PLANNING

Although it perhaps got your attention, this entry is not about what you probably think. It’s not about birth control or Planned Parenthood or any of that. It’s much too late for that. This is about planning to spend time with members of your family that are already born, some a long, long time ago. It’s way more complicated than the Family Planning you thought this was about.

My blended family includes my wife, eight children and eleven grandchildren, six siblings, uncountable cousins and nieces and nephews, and, oh, my 94-year-old mother.

This weekend (March 29-30) marks two birthdays. My mother turns 95 and one of my grandsons turns 4. She is in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is in Oak Park, Illinois. We don’t travel to everyone’s birthday, of course. That would be beyond the realm of reality, both financially and timewise. But some are more important than others, and these two qualify.

So, it was decided I would fly to Chicago for the grandson event, and my wife would go to Scottsdale. The machinations of the decision-making process of who goes where is not important, and those details are not included here. The important thing is we were able to come to an agreement.

This is just one example of the massive management job our family members require, if we want to actually spend time with them. It is necessary to keep track of all of their birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, wedding showers, and other events. Then there are addresses, phone numbers, emails, job details, and the list is never-ending. We utilize multiple calendars, spreadsheets and the like (digital and paper-based for backup).

Things are further complicated by the fact that none of them share locations. They are spread far and wide. Some are in the military and are often overseas. Others have lived in the same place for years, but the places are far away. Seattle, Phoenix, Chicago, Dallas, Tampa, Cincinnati, Washington, DC to name a few.

Our family keeps us very busy, but we like it that way. We have been cursed with the affliction of sincerely liking nearly every one of our family members, not just loving them. We enjoy spending time with them and try to take advantage of every opportunity to do so.

But it’s a lot of work.