My house is a wreck. Ellie's birthday party was Saturday and we are going through the birthday party loot and trying to absorb it into our house. Trying to stop eating birthday cake, but it is almost an impossibility for me. Love it. Love it.
Andrew is NOT helping with the mess.
I am going to share a random pet peeve I have. I thought of it because I didn't handle it so well the other day. I am often out and about with all three and someone will say, "You sure do have your hands full." And then someone else will say, "You think this is hard? Just wait until they're teenagers." Okay, I can only imagine the challenge that the teenage years will bring. But, please, please, don't act like these early years are a walk in the park either. Let's everyone acknowledge that each phase of parenting brings it's own challenges. Or...just for my encouragement...someone could tell me it does get easier, rather than harder. Alright, so I had a particularly bad day on Friday. My patience was thin and I had to apologize to Ellie and Luke several times. I had run all over town (it felt like) looking for something for a craft project (that I never found). The kids were tired and I had Andrew on my hip leaving a store. Sure enough, a lady said as I was leaving, "just wait until they are teenagers." And I replied (with a half-smile and a little too much sarcasm), "Can they walk? Because that would be great!" I think she thought I was joking. Hopefully. It was very rude of me and I acknowledge that. But, seriously, I hear that a lot and it drives me insane.
3 comments:
You are an incredible mother. I'm constantly amazed by all that you are and do for your children. I love all three of your kids TONS!!! But never, for a moment do I imagine it's easy...I think people make this insensitve remarks because you are doing such a fabulous job!!!!!! OH...I kinda love the "walking" comment :p
I don't think that was rude, Ann. And FWIW, the way I comfort myself when strangers say such things is by telling myself that they must not have put much work into these first years with their kiddos--putting off the tough stuff for when they're older. I know this for a fact with some people, and I'm not saying the teen years will be easy if we put in the work now, but like you, on some level, it gets easier in some ways.
I think of even how much easier my oldest is now that she can buckle her own seatbelt and isn't getting into trouble every minute and can get a drink for her little sis. These are small things, but they are really huge in our season!
I'm with you in the pet peeve thing. I have to talk myself down! Thanks for sharing!
Hey, I'm a friend of a friend's aunt's uncle's cousin's neighbor who stumbled across your blog and just wanted to say, I feel your pain on this one! I have five children, ages 6 and under, the last four boys, so you can imagine I hear constantly in public, "You've got your hands full!" Sometimes it's in a kind tone, and I know strangers just feel the need to say something, since we do live in the south, but at times I can tell it's meant in a negative "Girl you don't know what you're doing" kinda way. I've started saying, "Not nearly as full as my heart. So it's all worth it!" I don't think what you said was rude. And you're right, all seasons have their challenges.
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