Hope your Valentine’s Day was wonderful!
Mine was wonderful! Everyone was home for the LOML/Dad’s birthday/Valentine’s Day dinner minus Son #4 who is away at college.
This is day #14 of blogging every day of the month of February using a prompt list from The Sway blog. Please read all my entries. They were fun to write.
The prompt for today is
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU WISH YOU WOULD HAVE RECEIVED BEFORE HAVING KIDS?
There is so much I wish I knew way back then that I know now. I’ve been a parent for almost 30 years and although we’ve been through a lot, it feels like a blink of an eye.
The advice I wish I would have received before having kids is
Relax and enjoy every second!
The LOML and I were so stressed with our first child. We were so afraid of hurting the baby, scarring him for life, damaging his psyche for his whole life! Maybe not that bad, but boy was it stressful!
With each child, the stress was a little less because of the experience we were gaining. We realized that any mistakes we made wouldn’t scar the baby for life. Little kids are resilient. I fell down a flight of stairs (maybe 6-7 stairs) and I was holding Son #2 when he was about 6 weeks old. As I’m falling I accidentally dropped him on his head. He was perfectly fine. He stopped crying as soon as I put a bottle in his mouth. It scared me to death but he was fine. He makes jokes about it now, “Yea, remember the day Mom threw me down the stairs? Good times!”
As our family grew, the busyness of life got in the way of enjoying the moments. Soccer practice, piano lessons, birthday parties, always running around, heading somewhere, trying to have our children squeeze stuff into every minute of their days.
As my kids are growing up and moving out of the house beginning their own lives, I can’t help but look back and question our parenting choices, how we spent their childhoods and wonder if we could have done better. I’m glad they were exposed to different sports, different musical instruments, friends’ play dates, but did we do too much? It seemed like every second was taken up with plans. I had to carry my calendar around with me everywhere.
Just remember, love your kids, do the best you can, and cherish every. single. second. Trust me, it flies by so fast!!
Tomorrow’s prompt is “Do you make your bed in the morning or leave it unmade? What do you think it says about you?”
Love y’all,
Linda
