Children. Perhaps in a few years...

Wifey and I are nearing empty nesterhood. D2 is nearly 17, and mature for her age. Recently, while Wifey was out of town, I was the primary caregiver, and I learned that D2 is completely on autopilot, "like a soldier," as my father in law would say. I concluded that she basically just needs someone to keep her check card funded. "Pretty much," she agreed.

With this stage in life has come the realization that we really can't stand children. I mean, for years our lives were child-centric. If we went to a restaurant and there was a tantrum-having kid, we felt for the parents, knowing it could be us. We had kids around all of the time, and enjoyed them. We revelled in our kids' friends, and prided ourselves on being the house where all of the kids were always welcome.

These days --not so much. At a restaurant where there's a whiny kid, we ask to be moved to a distant table. One of my friends brings his lovely daughter with him to watch ball games, or did. After the last time, as "But Daddy, why..." was repeated for the 100th time during a 3rd quarter defensive stand...well, let's just say there haven't been as many invites.

A few weeks ago, a dear friend, who is 48, stopped over with his beautiful and very active 4 and 6 year olds. After one hour, I was gently reminding him that he might want to leave to beat the traffic back to North Dade. It was a Sunday --there was no traffic.

Yes, Wifey and I are more curmudgeonly, and I realize it's just a stage. I'm sure that if we're blessed with grandchildren, our old adoration for all things child will return.

On a related note, it continues to amaze me why anyone would remarry at an advanced age where there are still kids involved. I take my responsivbility to my kids and family enormously seriously, and if I had step kids, they'd be on my radar screen. I like my radar screen the way it is.

I joke with Wifey that if she died, any future wife of mine would have to be an only child, orphan, with financially independent grown kids, and be between 30 and 40 years old. Okay, so I tell her 30-55, but the point is the same.

I just don't get undertaking new responsibilities as I get older, at least in that arena.

We'll see what the next stage brings.