Thursday, April 02, 2009

You Ruined Everything

Michelle was discussing today an article she recently read wherein a woman questions the common assumption that children add to one's happiness, and suggest that in fact they have the potential to ruin your life. (I would say that if you're looking to a helpless infant to make you happy, fix your relationship, or complete you as a person, you should really rethink the decision to become a parent in the first place. But I digress...) I followed several article links from the original blog post linked above, and found my way to this song, which a commenter cited as an example of what parenting actually is. I liked it quite a bit, and given the slight depression I've been feeling over our particular (and comparably minor) fertility frustrations, it was a good reminder of why it is all worth it.

I was fine,
I pulled my self together
Just in time,
To throw my self away
Once my perfect world was gone I knew,
You ruined everything in the nicest way

You should know,
How great things were before you
Even so,
They're better still today
Now I can't think who I was before
You ruined everything in the nicest way

Bumps in the road remind us
The worst of the best behind us
Only good things will find us, me and you
Days will be clear and sunny
We're gonna need more money
Baby you know it's funny
All those stories coming,
True

Despite my better efforts,
It's all for you
the worst kind of cliché

I'll be with you till the day you leave
You ruined everything in the nicest way

-Jonathon Coulton

10 comments:

B said...

Very accurate :)

Anonymous said...

I love it! Thanks for sharing.

Jessica said...

So true!

d e v a n said...

Nice!

Michelle said...

Thank you so much for posting those song lyrics. They are so very true.

Anonymous said...

So true. I love it!

Katy said...

You know I've read all the stuff that says that people without children are, in fact, happier than those without, but I've always thought--and this is just my opinion--that a life without family is just a little bit emptier. My circumstances are a tad unique, but I think I can say that child-rearing is hard. But like most things in life, the stuff worth having is the stuff worth working for. Gawd. I killed the grammar on that, but you know what I mean.

Erin said...

Somehow this was EXACTLY what I needed to read right now. I'm struggling, big time, with daily life. I don't want my old life back-- not one bit-- but this one is really effing HARD sometimes.

Shelly said...

I love that! How awesome.

Jess said...

I don't even have a kid but I still think that sums it up perfectly. Or at least, it sums up my expectations of parenthood.