It's the last week of school and my mother has allowed my youngest daughter to go with her to school all week! This means that yesterday both my girls were in school and it was just me and my son home alone for some mommy/son time. During this magical time of having a single child home with me you would think that my stress level would have been at a bare minimum. Seriously! How hard can it be with one?
.....
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I take back every bad thing I ever thought when I heard a mother of one talk about how all consuming parenting is. I'm sorry for all the eye rolling and knowing smirks I flashed in the direction of a mother of one about to lose her shmit in the middle of Publix. I take back every judgmental and critical thought I have ever had, even if it was just for a split second that made parenting a single child any easier then parenting a brood.
I have three kids and after spending just the morning with my opinionated, demanding, emotionally psychotic three year old; you could not pay me enough to be a mother of one. That shit is hard!! I forgot. I mean really, I forgot how all consuming it is. There are no breaks, no distractions, no other noise even except for the constant stream of conscious thought spewing from the lips of my son like a foun't that over-floweth.
As a mother of one, you become the soul entertainer, party planner, caterer and playmate of your child. There is nothing to distract them from following you to the bathroom, the kitchen, your bedroom. Have you ever walked into another room and forgot what it was you came in for so you spin around quick to leave the way you came and you trip over a toddler because they apparently can't survive being more then a foot away from you at all. Possible. Moments. Of TIME?
Welcome to the life of a mother of one.
Not only was the attention consistently on me but if for what ever reason my attention strayed even for a second my son would grab my face and look into my eyes asking "What did I say? Are you listening?" in his best "mom" voice he could muster. Of course, I was listening to the first 100 times you said that you liked "Mighty Machines" and I just assumed that the next 50 times were more for the collective consciousness and didn't actually warrant a response.
...
I was wrong. Every little thing that came out of his mouth was of dire importance that needed nothing but undivided attention... and I can almost understand this. I mean, he is three, after all and the world is kind of a magical place right now and he honestly never gets any time by himself with me EVER! So I tried to be as patient as possible ...
But when he would interrupt my responses to his questions in order to feed me the lines he wanted, as if he was the overbearing director of Hamlet, I started to feel like more of a sounding board as opposed to an equal in conversation.
Needless to say, I dropped the girls off at school at 9:00am and by 11:00am we magically found ourselves at the nearest playground just so I could get a mental break, even in the 98 degree florida summer heat!...
So here's to you momma's! Here's to all of you that are struggling to keep their single child at bay while simultaneously trying to cling to your sanity. Here's to playgrounds and splash parks and Pintrest projects. Here's to playdates and movie nights and little gyms. Here's to basically anything that even resembles entertainment for more then 15 minutes. You ladies are soldiers!! And I only have one bit of advice for clinging to sanity...
Have more children...
Antenella
No comments:
Post a Comment