Parenting is hard and being a mom is exhausting. It’s immensely rewarding but definitely life’s hardest work.
There are days parenting is hard and there are days when it seems easy.
There are days when I can’t wait for you to wake up and spend the day with me and there are days I count the hours till bedtime.
There are days when I love you so much my heart feels like it may actually burst out of my chest.
and there are days when I yell because I have lost all patience.
There are days when I hide in my closet and cry remembering your face when I yelled and there are days when I think I’m finally getting this parenting thing right.
Then there are days when I realize I probably won’t ever get it right…do it good enough…be the mom I think you deserve.
There are days when I’m so proud of your new accomplishment I could burst at the seams.
That's when I realize that means you are one step closer to not needing me the same way.
And before you know it, your little girl is off to Kindergarten Because you’re not ready for her to not be your baby. A little helpless. Completely dependent on you.
Because as exhausting as this job of motherhood is, you know it’s the best gig you could have ever dreamed of landing and you’re always a little nervous you might be let go.
Because the real problem we as moms have with letting go is not just letting go of our kids literally but figuratively. As in letting go of what we used to have but all too soon becomes just a memory…
For every phase that ends, another one is waiting to take its place.
Some days I cringe because I can barely remember what it was like carrying on a conversation with a child who couldn’t talk. Though I did it for years…but eventually the words came and then complete thoughts and then complete sentences. And now, I can’t even remember how we communicated before that transpired.
How could I have forgotten 2 whole years of my life? Of her life? How is that even possible?
And in a couple years, I’ll probably have forgotten how I filled my days with hopscotch and blocks and dollhouses while juggling cleaning, cooking and the occasional shower.
Because those days will be gone…I will have had to let them go…along with my babies at that age…despite all my gallant efforts to hold on.
Isn’t that how parenting is so often?
We have so much to do, so many errands to run, so much homework to help with, so many appointments to make.
There is dinner to make and clothes to wash and floors to vacuum.
We are trying so hard to check off our to-do lists, we completely forget that to-do of having fun.
So here is the fun version of all that becoming a Parent is..
So you had better enjoy these days, relish in those fleeting moments where everyone is smiling and getting along. Accept that there will be some rough days, weeks, months. But never forget the gift God has given you. This little person that you love more than anything in this world.