Weekly thread: What's happened recently to make you grateful to be a parent?
Parenting is so hard. Sometimes it can be rewarding.
TGI…. Oh just kidding, it’s still only Thursday. This has been THE LONGEST WEEK. Maybe it’s because one of my kids was home sick for two days, or maybe it’s because I have not been feeling 100% myself, or maybe it’s because February. Probably all of the above.
I think we could all use some uplifting thoughts right now. So my question for you today is: What has happened to you recently (or not so recently!) to make you grateful to be a parent? I want to hear about one of those moments, however brief, when the relentless clouds of parenting hell parted and you could see the sunshine that reminded you of why you had children in the first place.
I had one of those moments yesterday. My son, who’s in the 6th grade, is starting a unit in his english class on nonfiction writing. When I first learned about this unit, in the fall, I offered to come into the school to talk to the students. The unit started this week, so I went in yesterday to teach. The first class started at 8:15, which is …. early for me. Or at least, too early to teach hordes of tweens.
When I woke up yesterday morning, I was nervous and headache-y and out of sorts. At one point, I started running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find my navy blue flats and then realized and mumbled aloud that I probably wouldn’t have enough time to eat breakfast. Well, guess what. My 8-year-old daughter overheard me and came to the rescue. She had gotten ready for school without any prompting and then, without being asked, starting hunting for my navy blue shoes. Reader, she found them hidden in the downstairs closet. (I swear, I looked there!) Then, without my asking, she MADE ME BREAKFAST. (Peanut butter on toast.) I was floored. She was just magical. Then, I went into school and my 11-year-old beamed when he saw me at the front of the classroom.
I was just so, so happy in that moment to be the mom of those two kids.
Don’t get me wrong, my kids can be extremely difficult too. Ask me how much they bickered during dinner last night. But yesterday morning was one of those times when they both made me feel proud and full of love.
What have your kids done recently to make you swoon? It can be something really simple, like “my 3-year-old named his plastic dinosaur after me, which was cute until he flushed it down the toilet.” I don’t care what it is. I just want to hear about it.
We had daycare conferences for our 3 year old last week. The first thing the teacher told us was “You have a very kind sweet little boy.”
Love your story and thanks for the reminder to recognize the little moments of joy. We have an introverted, academic 9 year old daughter and a goofy, boisterous 6 year old son. 9 regularly chastises 6 for EVERYTHING- not flushing the toilet, not washing his hands. I mean, good stuff, but please, he’s got parents on his case too. Last night at dinner he caught her reading a book (outlawed only at dinner) and called her out. The look on both of their faces - all smiles as they recognized the irony, some humility. It made me realize they GET each other and were kind of proud of themselves for it.