Day 26 It’s Okay To Wish Today Was Over

The baby is sick, your toddler has cried all day about a myriad of items, and your husband is traveling…Day 26 It’s Okay To Wish Today Was Over gives you a pass!  You can quit beating yourself up and realize that not every moment of motherhood is meant to be one for the memory books.

My husband doesn’t travel a lot, but somehow he seems to time it perfectly with a gazillion things going wrong in our house.  

Last week, Bryan was gone basically Monday-Friday, during which I had my older daughter at the pulmonologist so they could literally beat her back for 20 minutes to break up the congestion in her lungs.  Both my girls were on antibiotics for a sinus infection and terrible cough that was keeping them up all night.  My completely house-trained puppy decided the middle of the night was a great time to come downstairs and poop by the front door.  And for good measure, he threw up in my bed too.

Couple all of that with school, pitiful sick kids and a laundry list of things that I actually needed to do and I was DONE!

I was sleep deprived and cranky and I knew that on Tuesday, I still had 3 more days alone!

So what did I do?  I berated myself for wanting this week to be over with.  

I felt so much guilt for wishing away today because I know I won’t get these days back.  And in my heart, I knew all of this was fleeting but I just couldn’t help myself.

And then it dawned on me – that it was OKAY! Okay to feel like I might not make it to tomorrow, okay to wish tomorrow was here and okay to not love every.single.moment of parenting.  

Because parenting is hard and being a mom is exhausting.  It’s immensely rewarding but definitely life’s hardest work.  So when you make that work HARDER by throwing illness, teething, potty training, tantrums, etc in, some days it can feel like too much.

So I think it’s okay to secretly wish – I CANNOT wait for this to be over!  

But be careful…

Be careful that this doesn’t become your go-to mantra…because I can promise you this:  

For every phase that ends, another one is waiting to take its place.  

Once you get your baby sleeping through the night, you’ll turn around and he will be teething.  

Once you make it through your child’s “hitting” phase, you’ll turn around and she’ll be facing mean girls in school.  

Once you get your daughter doing her homework “on her own,” you’ll turn around and she will be ready to date.  

Once your son stops talking back, you’ll turn around and he will be in high school.

And when you finally think things are getting easier, you may just realize your kids are graduating, moving out, moving on.  

Because I don’t think parenting is supposed to be easy.  

God knew that being a mom was tough work – you are raising a human being my friend.  It’s a job that can’t be taken lightly.

So you had better enjoy these days, relish in those fleeting moments where everyone is smiling and getting along.  Accept that there will be some rough days, weeks, months.  But never forget the gift God has given you.  This little person that you love more than anything in this world.

So go ahead, look forward to the day when your child won’t scream and thrust her body about like a writhing snake when you buckle her in the car seat.

But be forewarned – in a few years, as you are dropping her off at school and she unbuckles herself to jump out of the car, you may just find yourself longing for the good ol’ days.  Wanting her to be small again.  Wishing she wouldn’t grow so fast.  Wanting to hold onto this phase for a little longer…