Yesterday I was at a bloggers event where children were more than welcome. Mine were at school, but there were a lot of bloggers there with their young children in tow.
I chatted to a few of the Mums as the morning progressed and they all had a similar response to my question of, “Hi! How are you?”
It went a little something like, “Oh you know. Having a FABULOUS time here with the kids!” said through semi-gritted teeth while grabbing a cup of juice out of one little hand and trying desperately to wipe the nose of another.
I don’t care what anyone says, those years when your kids are aged two, three and four are HARD WORK.
There’s limited time to yourself, your kids need ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME and you probably haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since that one time you accidentally gave the sniffly one a bit too much Panadol when he was a toddler.
I was one of those irritating sing-songy mums when my two were little. Although to be fair, I was an early childhood teacher at the time so I had quite the repertoire of nursery rhymes and soothing songs up my sleeve.
Thanks to my degree and many years of teaching children under the age of 4, I could belt out ‘1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive’ quicker than you could say ‘Wake Up Jeff!’ and did so on a very regular basis.
Oh yes, I was THAT mum.
I also used to whip up my own play dough and put on quite the crafternoon when friends & their young children called in. If blogs were a thing back then, I’m guessing mine would’ve been batshit boring a Tonia Todman meets Playschool scenario. I think we can all feel a little relieved and very grateful that blogs weren’t a thing back then!
And when I used to take my two kids to the shops and push them around in their prams while they sucked the life out of a fruit stick, lost a sock and performed some sort of explosive bowel movement all within 5 minutes of being strapped into the pram, I used to look at women like me yesterday, wandering around carrying nothing but a handbag and think, “WHAT MUST THAT EVEN FEEL LIKE?”*
(*Freedom. It feels a little bit like freedom)
Watching the Mums yesterday with their young children made me realise how quickly the years fly by. What’s that saying? The days are long but the years are short? It is so true.
One minute your kids are throwing themselves on the floor because you won’t let them eat cake for dinner and the next minute they’re telling you they’ll say goodnight to you now because they’re going to read for 10 minutes before turning their own bedroom light off.
And honestly, it happens in an instant.
How old are your kids? Are you on the home stretch to freedom or has your parenting journey just begun?
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