There is nothing like a quiver full of kids, children to enrich your life when you live in a rural state like Maine.

Activities outdoors, all four seasons are the norm for Maine family living. I had the priviledge to be blessed with four kids, two step children. All unique, special, individual just like you and me.

Group trips to Akron Ohio for soap box derby racing’s World Series of downhill excitement were special the two times we all went west. Ski trips here and there. Cruise vacations with a boat bobbing on blue green water were fun with a bunch of kids too.

But one at a time events with your kids.

Where the child does not have to share you or take turns. Having you, plus you them, all to yourself is needed too.

Today on the ride in to the real estate office from the lake I thought of oldest daughter Elizabeth. And just she and I jumping in a white Jeep when she was five. And heading to Beaver Cove Marina in Greenville to fetch a boat that was bought over the phone. Needing to be picked up.

I texted her this morning and asked her if she remembered the trip. She lets me know what is happening where she lives in NYC with back and forth text communications. A call once in a while.

Or the time just she and I went to her Mom’s brother’s wedding in The Forks.

Because her Mom was not able to travel, had to stay home and due to have enough child soon. The child being the center of all your attention is healthy, special.

Riding a Maine ski lift talking to just one or two of the kids due to seating. Or one child having to stay home due to last minute sickness. And shuttled to the farm for expert care from Nurse Nana. The trip not canceled, but one member missing the outing due to illness. With the show going on without them.

Had one of those ski trips to Rangley Lake to swish swish down Saddleback Mountain.

Where Elliot, the youngest had to bow out due to the flu that arrived just as we loaded him in to the jeep. Ready to leave the driveway when oh oh, here comes breakfast. Again.

Building one soap box derby car at a time in the basement with each kid. Teaching them about allen wrenches, steering turn buckle cables, washers, nuts and bolts. Then guiding each down the lanes, advising as Mr Goodwrench for support.

Or even spending time in the hospital waiting room while a bottle of vital Vitamin B mixture is IV pole dripped in to another step daughter. While watching a movie or delivering a pizza, something to eat.

Or walking between little league fields to juggle two baseball games with different kids not on the same teams.

Not on the same level of games due to age differences. Doing the best you can to attend individual games for hockey, baseball or basketball, soccer, tennis, track and field as well as group trips with all aboard. Helping find their first car within a budget. One on one. Trips for teeth brace tightening. To college campuses for tours on which one for the sheep skin.

When college happens, loading up the SUV to deliver the kids to dorms, out of state schools becomes the new activitiy. Video those college trips, take pictures of cross country trips with just you and one child. As a parent, the teaching never stops to prepare each and every kid for the wild blue yonder. College experiences are the threshold of their lives on their own, not with you day to day.

Looking back before empty nest syndrome, you wonder how you did it all. But savor the times when lots of kids in the home. And many of their friends in and out growing up in a small Maine town. Enjoy your kids, one at a time, collectively. Finish raising those kids. Put them first and foremost. Video those college graduations. Keep taking those Maine ski trips, other family vacations. Make the time.

Maine, the place to raise a family. Have kids with their heads screwed on straight and happy, productive, not with their hands out expecting something for nothing.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com