Parenting Multi-Tasking

She is the middle child between older brother, Steve and younger sister, Pam. She is 53-years old, married to Shawn O'Keefe. She is the mother of seven children and overseer of two dogs and soon to be three, I'm sure. She is Dawn Rene'.

When she was a young girl at home leaving the house to go somewhere, I often told her, "Look both ways!" I surely hope she is doing just that these days. Let me elaborate. One week ago, Dawn traveled three hours from Barrington, Illinois to Decatur with three of her four girls, (Kaitlyn, Alexa & Ashlyn),  a boyfriend of one of the girls (Gio), two of her three sons, (Colin and Connor) and two dogs to celebrate her mother's birthday with sister Pam, brother in-law, Tim, nephew Caleb and his fiancé, Morgan, niece, Erica and me.

After dinner, Dawn left Decatur for a two and a half hour drive to Polo, Illinois in anticipation that the 'contractions' being experienced by her 29-year old daughter, Lindsay was signaling the birth of Dawn's first grand child. Didn't happen on August 11, 12 or 13 or 14, so Dawn packed her daughter, Kaitlyn's things in the SUV on August 15 and headed out on a five hour trip to Bloomington, Indiana where Kaitlyn will begin her freshman year and brother, Connor will start his junior campaign.

Of course, Dawn had to rush back to Northern Illinois on a five hour trek eager for Lindsay's delivery but in the meantime, she must on August 17, her mom's actual date of birth,  Dawn posted on Facebook a very nice salute to her mother wishing her a Happy 79th  Birthday. Dawn's busy that day> her seven year old second grade daughter, Ashlyn has a 'Meet Your Teacher' event at 3PM followed by high school freshman daughter, Alexa's first game at which to cheer lead....not to forget that pregnant daughter Lindsay's approaching time!

Knowing just how busy my daughter Dawn is, I did what any good father would do: I commented on her Facebook page that Dawn made a mistake...her mother is ONLY 78 years old not 79. When Dawn gets a breather she'll likely telephone and thank me for pointing out her error! Cannot believe my wife missed that mistake.