Why is it that the most worthwhile things are like a constant, uphill battle against the universe's forces of entropy always trying to seduce you with a Sunday nap or chocolate or the lastest episode of Game of Thrones?

Sigh.

Worthwhile things, like child-rearing, or eating healthy, or making sure your bicultural children speak Japanese well enough to talk to their grandparents on the phone.

Nobody ever told me (#36) when I married a Japanese man that I was the one who was going to have to be the merciless dictator of "yes you will learn your father's language" at home. That I was going to be the bad guy forcing my poor children to do homework ON TOP of their elementary school homework and basically kill every Saturday for years and years with Japanese school.

See, the universe doesn't just let you "learn" a language like "okay, you now know 1 plus 1 is 2" and you never forget it.

You don't use it, you lose it. Like riding a bicycle, you don't have to start from scratch if you get back on it after a while, you have muscle memory and such, but you definitely get rusty.

So after 10 years with girl1 trying to keep her conversational in Japanese I still think its worth the daily struggle, but oh boy I wish someone had warned me in the beginning.

Because maybe I would have spent more time eating chocolate and sleeping in on Saturdays while I still could.