Note: On Wednesday, February 15th, the National Association of Mothers’ Centers will be hosting a webinar as part of their Parenting and Family Webinar Series entitled: Staying Connected: Maintaining the lines of Communication with your Teen. This upcoming webinar inspired me to reflect on those small moments in the present, where I’ve contemplated the future.
Do you ever wonder why it always seems like everyone always needs something from you all at the SAME time?
For example, lets take the time period after school:
- When your oldest child might need your help with a math question,
- At the same time that another child wants to play the Wii but can’t find the remote, AND
- Your toddler is screaming because he just needs to watch TV (and you’ve said “No!” for the 50-billionth time).
And of course any minute:
- The piano teacher is going to arrive (for your child who’s homework isn’t done yet because you haven’t had a second to helped them with their math question), AND
- 2 kids’ lunches are sitting only half-packed on the counter for school tomorrow,
- Oh, and dinner? DARN! Dinner! Dinner still needs to be started!
Then, right as you think you’ve finally figured out your child’s homework question:
- Your 2-year-old has a major poopy-diaper blowout,
- Just about the same time as there’s a knock at the door (the piano teacher has arrived), AND
- The phone begins to ring (most likely your husband wanting to know what you’re having for dinner… You know? The same dinner you haven’t started yet?)
You get what I mean, right? Does this sound familiar?
These are the times in parenting that just make you want to scream.
These are the days when you just wish you could clone yourself so that you could: quickly solve everyone’s problems, find all the missing Wii remotes, magically stop the whining and crying, pack everyone’s lunches, get dinner started, change a diaper, answer the front door AND also answer the phone…
All. At. The same. Time.
And typically, it’s not until later (such as right before you are about to fall in bed, after you’ve read everyone their books, tucked in the last child, and gotten some great big hugs and kisses) that you realize:
How fortunate you are …
And maybe think to yourself, “These just might be the Golden Years of parenting?”
That Sentimental Moment in Motherhood
And for a moment (possibly just a short moment?) you stop… and (depending on your mind frame and sometimes what time of the month it is) you might just get a little misty-eyed.
You may think to yourself things like:
How lucky you are that your kids still want to hang out with you.
OR
How much you’ll someday miss your kids’ squeals of excitement
when you sit down to read a book with them.
OR MAYBE
How wonderful it is that you still get tight hugs and sloppy kisses when you ask for them.
You think this because you’ve realized, in that small moment, that someday, someday sooner then later, this all may end.
One day you might just wake up and realize that your oldest is off at college, and you have one about to graduate high school, and your “baby” is almost about to drive.
One day you may not be the person anymore with all the answers, the person who can solve all their problems.
One day maybe your children won’t run in from the bus after school excited just to tell you about their day because instead they have their own car, and friends, and boyfriend or girlfriend who they think are way more important to them then you.
The nostalgia of how you used to be as a teenager and as a young adult starts to consume you.
Golden-Schmolden…
And then it ends. (Sometimes it takes longer for reality to hit, but eventually, usually, the sentimental mood does change.)
Maybe it ends because it is almost time for bed, and because suddenly you breathe a sigh of relief at the realization that you are almost a diaper-free household, and because you realize tomorrow is another day.
And DARN!
Then you remember that you forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow’s dinner… and the dryer buzzer starts loudly beeping - signaling the 20-billionth load of laundry is finally done, ready to be folded and put away.
Yep… Tomorrow is another day - another busy day.
And tonight you are Just. So. Tired.
As quickly as they are remembered, these thoughts of the “Golden Days” of parenting are again forgotten - while your mind wonders on to tomorrow’s busy schedule and your body begins to show definite signs of needing a good night’s sleep.
And a few minutes or hours later (depending on how many loads of laundry you still have to do in order for your child to have a clean soccer jersey to wear for tomorrow’s game) you think:
“It’s only Wednesday! Oh. My. Goodness. Will the weekend ever be here? Friday can’t get here soon enough!”
And in the back of your head a tiny voice whispers…
Be careful what you wish for.
Leave a comment. Do you ever find yourself appreciating where you are in the moment? As your children grow, what moments do you look back on and wish you had appreciated more?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Totally with you here! Some days I think, “Golden my butt!” Then Eve says, “It’s BUM Papa.” and that snaps me out of my mood. Maybe they’re right, these are the golden years. Amazing how we can lift up the past to a superior status. Amazing how we can think the future could be better than the present.
I could write an entire post just on the last two sentences of your comment: “Amazing how we can lift up the past to a superior status. Amazing how we can think the future could be better than the present”
SO true… so true…