Broadway Flea

Sometimes, it feels as though most of what we do as parents is for our kids. We attend little league games and birthday parties. We bring ourselves up to speed on their current interests. We go where they need to go.
 
But every so often, their interests intersect with our own. Where they want to go matches up with where we want to go. What we would do with our time coincides with what they want to do.
 
And so it was that I spent part of my day at the annual Broadway Flea Market. Many years ago, when I was single, and new to the New York area, the event was also relatively new, and I excitedly combed through tables of theater memorabilia. I couldn't afford much, but the experience of being in the thick of it was enough.
 
The event is much bigger now. It now commands the better part of two blocks, and it includes more tables, more theater people, and much bigger crowds. And while I was happy to go (and even ended up with the day off to do so at a leisurely pace), it was my daughter who had marked it on her calendar months before. Though I spent some of my time combing through tables on my own as I did all those years ago, it was my daughter who pointed out actors and interesting show tidbits, and made it an even more interesting event than it would otherwise have been.
 
Sometimes, it feels as though most of what we do as parents is for our kids. But sometimes, we turn around and what we're doing is simply with them. And sometimes, a little bit of "with" makes all the "for" well worth it.