This Is Us is REALLY us!

Last night's episode of "This Is Us", in my opinion, was one of the best things I have ever seen on television.  Anyone who thinks children (whatever age they are) do not think they are the favorite or that another sibling is the favorite is 100% wrong.

When Joe was in the hospital before he passed away, our oldest son, who at the time lived in Alaska, flew down to be with his dad.  I will never forget the moment when we were all in the room with Joe, and Charles walked in. The look on Joe's face when he saw Charles and lifted his arms toward him.  Charles laid his head down on Joe's chest and they both cried and hugged and Joe said "my son".  It was in that instant that we all knew who was the favorite.  The love between those two was so huge and intense that there was no question.  The other kids, almost in unison, said ahhhhh, Charles is the favorite.  No hard feelings.  No anger.  No jealousy.

Where I think the show failed last night was when Rebecca finally broke down and said that Randall was always easy to love, she lost the perfect opportunity to say because I chose to love Randall.  You see, Joe adopted Charles when he was a baby.  He chose to love him.  It's human nature to naturally love the children you give birth too for almost all of us.  You don't have a choice.  Sharing your name, your home, your life with a stranger is not an easy thing for many people but making the choice to do so is one of the most unselfish acts a person can do.

When I married Joe, it was a package deal of him and his 4 children.  Four wonderful teenagers who did not have an ideal, if any, relationship with their mother.  Four incredible people who just wanted to be loved. Four children who I welcomed with my whole heart into my home and my life and could not possibly love any more than had I birthed them.  Add that 4 and the 2 that Joe and I created and you have 6 children arguing about who is the favorite.  Asking who is the favorite and getting the answer "you are all my favorite".  Let's face it, as parents we always love our children but sometimes we don't particularly like them.  It's not constant and it's not sincere and sometimes you're just closer to one child over the other but you always love them.  Oh yes, they still do the "I'm the favorite" only to hear back "no you're, not Charles is."  They chuckle and smile and say, "yeah, that's right".



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