On the days your patience is at it lowest level, your children’s behavior will be at its worst.
But, on the days your mood is at it’s lowest, your children’s hugs will be at their best.
When it’s of utmost importance to leave on time, or when you are in the most of a hurry, this is when your children will take the longest, drag their feet, and forget how to put on their own shoes or find their coat.
But, these same children will one day teach you the true definition of time; quality time, time well spent, and the importance of spending time together, even as it falls away like the turning of pages in your life story.
No matter how many dollar store trinkets or dishes you possess, no matter how high you place the precious ones up out of reach, eventually your child will get a hold of and break your most prized fragile item.
But then they’ll replace it with something they made with their own little hands, something they earned, something they bestowed upon you with love, and that will be your new priceless treasure.
No matter the diet you undertake, the extensive exercises you perform, or how much time passes, your body will never, ever be what it was before you carried a child in it for nine months, and then brought said child from your womb into the world.
But as you stand over their bed watching them sleep and feel the lump of so much emotional rise into your throat threatening to bring you to happy tears, you realize your heart will never be the same either.
As long as children reside in your home you will experience constant noise, non-stop shenanigans, and wonder how you will manage to process simple thought in the midst of such chaos.
But you will also experience true appreciation for those rare moments when everyone is asleep and beautiful, pristine quietness fills the air.
Then you’ll be surprised to discover that after a short spell of reveling in silence you’re eager to hear that joyful noise that has become a part of everything you are.
If you are dressed in black, your child will hug you with their snotty face, sharing their runny nose with your dark fabric attire.
If you are wearing white, your child will hug you with a food-stained face, sharing their lunch with you’re welcoming blank palate of fabric.
If your wearing something nice, anything other than your pajamas especially, your child will find some way to add their own personal flair to your ensemble, be it boogers, poop, or mud.
But, despite all the ruined shirts, changed outfits, and stain remover used, you’ll find that it is of little importance when compared to the joy of a dirty toddler burying their face in your lap with unabashed love or a sleepy baby leaning into your chest for comfort to help them drift to sleep.
Though you never saw it coming, you’ll be surprised to discover that unwrinkled blouses and an unmarred appearance doesn’t hold the weight it once did before learning the fullness felt after a messy hug.
If you make the decision to stop yelling so much, that very same day they’ll do something really outrageous, something downright stupid to test your every limit and every single ounce of determination and resolve.
But whether you yell or whether you manage not to yell, they will love you the same. They’ll smile, hug you, say “I’m sorry” in such a tender way that you’ll decide you really want to try again tomorrow. Try again to be the best you can for them.
You’ll never want to try so hard or be a better you as much as you do when you look at the face of your smallest, yet biggest fan.
On the days you plan the most to get accomplished, this will be the day kids are the crankiest, or the sickest, or the sleepiest!
But as you throw your plans out the window and instead rock a baby, or play a game, or hold a feverish little one, you will understand that plans will hold until another day, but moments like this, pushing the sweaty hair from their face and kissing a tender cheek, these moments will not.
If you tell them “no,” they’ll do it even more.
If they shouldn’t eat it, they will (even if they don’t like it normally).
If it’s something they shouldn’t touch, they’ll be drawn to put their hands upon it.
But in the process you’ll learn amazing things like picking your battles, giving up something you love for someone you love more, and humor in every facet of life, even the broken moments that make you cry.
You’ll learn to draw laughter from tears.
You’ll learn what’s really important.
And what’s not.
You’ll learn how to prioritize. You’ll learn how to prioritize yourself, your time, your resources, and the things in your life that are most important.
You’ll do all this on little to no sleep.
You’ll learn how to find time alone with your spouse, hidden precious nuggets of time to steal away with your partner in this crazy journey of sleepless nights, rushed days, and endless laundry baskets and dishes.
You’ll do this, and you’ll love it.
You’ll wake up one day with a tiny foot kicking you in the head and you’ll realize you love the noise. You love the sleep deprivation and you love the chaos. It has become your repertoire, the favorite song to which you just have to dance, you can’t help yourself.
You will count it all as joy… And then you will pass out from exhaustion.
[…] Parents are frequent victims of the power of Murphy’s Law, and I’ve even blogged about it and how it affects child-rearing. […]