I may not have little ones any more, but I know what it was like to keep up with them, listen to them, help make sandwiches, clean their rooms (until they learned to do it - somewhat), teach them to brush their teeth, help them with their homework when they were older, cuddle them when they were sick or just tired, break up fights, and on and on the list goes. I remember. But you may be in the middle of all this right now.
The main advice I personally want to share is to not rush through it. Absorb the little things that are sweet and precious, like the face of a sleeping infant, the wonder in a toddlers eye, the intensity of face while they are learning a new skill.
But also, there will be new memories to hang on to: Riding a big bike, learning algebra, mowing the grass, getting that driver's permit, questionable friends. Then soon after that is prom night, college and then maybe weddings and grand-babies... where you get to start over in similar, but easier roles usually.
Take photos, snatch those memories, keep a diary maybe, whatever it takes to absorb all those little moments that we rush through all too quickly because there is only so much time in a day. Absorb all those endearments and lock them away. Too soon it will all be in the past.
And tonight is Halloween. I don't know if you celebrate it, but if you do, get out the camera! Watch. Be involved. Listen. Take it all in. Believe me when I say that one day you will wish you could go back for a peek, a cuddle, a splashy bath-time, etc. ENJOY and ABSORB it all now. So get the camera out and take those holiday photos... include the grandparents, aunts and uncles in with the kids too! Okay, end of lecture.
If you still have kids in the house, here is a blog that you will also want to follow.
You will enjoy it.
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| Click here to read the entire story. |
Here is a snippet from "To the Out-of Breath Mom":
I'll look at my home and all the things I could, should, should have, and could have been doing all scream at me in the brief moments where I think I want to pause. I'll mull over slowing down and then the mom cry is heard again and the racing starts up.
It's tiring. Exhausting.
And yet, somehow, sometimes it is beautiful.
It's beautiful when you strip away the layers of exhaustion and fatigue and out of breath moments and look at the amazing power of what one is doing. That would be what you and I and mothers have been doing since time began.
. . .
We give of ourselves for our children. And so often that leaves us in that out of breath posture place for years.
But, it won't last.
There will come a day when we are sitting in our homes - our homes with the throw pillows exactly where they are meant to go, with a table with no crumbs underneath and no marker stains on the top, with walls absent of handprints, bathtubs without the piles of toys, laundry rooms without the missing Captain America socks, cars without carseats, cabinets without fruitsnacks, bedrooms lacking toys to trip on, and we will miss today.
You and I will look back on these out of breath motherhood days and we will miss them.
Click here or the photo to read it all.
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It's only fair.
My personal suggestions and opinions are usually in this green italic type - so you will know when it is my own wording/opinion given.
I hope this information has been of some help to you. As always, if you would like to add a thought, question, give suggestions for another topic, or make a general suggestion, please post a comment below. Also, please follow / subscribe to this blog. Thank you!
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