Ron, Emily, Erin and Elena Epstein enjoy a little tranquility at the beach. Ron and Elena are generally pretty busy as owners of L.A. Parent, but they always find time for each other and their girls.
We have two theories about love: 1) We’ve watched enough TV to convince us that people like Ross and Rachel or Lorelai and Luke should always end up together; 2) we have grown up in a house where love was a constant. Now, we know it is cliché to believe that one person is made for another, but every day we believe it more and more, and here’s why.
Our parents, Ron and Elena Epstein, met working for the CSUN newspaper. Our dad took our mom to her first baseball game, where she found out she didn’t like baseball but she did like him. She introduced him to Persian food, and that’s when he realized he had a lot of learning to do. He took a Farsi class so that he could ask for her parents’ permission and, two years later, they were married (though the Farsi never stuck).
We know everyone says that they have the best parents in the world, but they are all lying because we do. Not only did we grow up watching “Friends” and “Gilmore Girls,” we grew up watching the real thing. Now, after all this time, we know exactly what 25 years of love looks like:
- Pacing up and down the field during a 6-year-old’s soccer game (a behavior that continued throughout high school and persists to this day).
- Yelling at the coach of your 9-year-old daughter’s softball team, even though the coach is your husband.
- Not ordering yourselves a meal, knowing there will leftovers on the kids’ plates.
- Choosing a “new” place to go on our annual summer vacation. (We’ve been to Canada at least three times).
- Enjoying the “local” cuisine. (We went to CPK four times during our week in Seattle.)
- Always wearing at least one item of clothing from your kids’ college/grad school so you always have a chance to brag about them. (This tradition started long ago, and we hope no one has forgotten that Erin was the eighth grade vice president.)
- Not actually knowing our parents’ first names for the first five years of our lives because all we hear them call each other is “Love” and “Babe.”
- Seeing roses on the kitchen table for all their little anniversaries (including December 15, the anniversary of their first date).
- Watching our parents start a business together, which led them to buy a magazine (making us the L.A. Parent heirs).
As the children of “parenting experts,” we’ve come to know the perfect match when we see it. They still laugh over college memories and they are still excited to come home to each other at the end of the day. While we’d love to continue to make fun of these lovebirds, we have to save something for the 50th! Happy 25th wedding anniversary, Mom and Dad! Thank you for the constant love.
