If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Why do I need to even say this you may be asking? It doesn’t seem to be any secret that parenting is hard. Or does it? It seems everyone has the answers on how to be a better parent. If you would just breastfeed things would be better. Co-sleep, discipline this way, do it that way. It seems pretty easy from the outside looking in.
But when you get right down to it for some, grocery shopping is too much to handle, let alone raising children. Of course on my list of everyday or every week tasks, grocery shopping certainly is not a moment of stress for me. I don’t enjoy doing it, but I didn’t enjoy it pre-kids either. For me though the things that cause me to quiver in my flip flops is just being there for all of my children.
If Only There Were 4 Of Me
This year we are back to 3 kids in 3 different schools. Last year it was 3 in two schools and next year it might be 4 kids in 4 different schools. This can turn into a logistical nightmare. Especially since my 11 year old is going to be at a school that is half an hour away without traffic. She has a long day too. She’ll likely be getting on a bus before 7 a.m. and not getting home until 5 p.m. on a typical day. Then you add in her desire to play intramural soccer this year. Now I have to go pick her up after school practices. And bring her to games.
Then there’s my oldest who is starting high school. What will things look like with her? I have no idea. I hope she joins after school clubs and gets involved because that will look great on college applications.
Whatever ends up happening, all of this adds up to very busy social calendars. There will be 3 different times where kids have to get to school and get picked up from school. Heck, even some of their days off and half days aren’t going to coincide with one another.
Just thinking about the times where I will have to decide between activities for my children gets me all shaky and a lump forms in the back of my throat. All of the deep breathing in the world can’t settle the anxiety that all of this causes me. Perhaps it’s my planning personality. But for me this is what could send me to a dark corner, rocking, saying, why me?
But you know what? As nerve wracking as that is, none of that compares to the real work of parenting. You know the watching over your children. The discipline. The teaching them everything they need to know to become productive members of society. The worrying about them when they are sick or are away from you in someone else’s care. The anticipation and anxiety when they have a huge final they studied really hard for and you want to know how they did. The advocating for their education. The preteen and teenage hormones.
I know none of it ends either. For the rest of my life I will forever worry if I did right by them and if they are safe. That is what makes parenting so difficult. Not so much the day to day things that are life. The cooking, the cleaning, the shopping, the chauffeuring. Nope, parenting is difficult because of the uncontrollable amount of love you have for these people you have created. Because you want to be there for them every step of the way and provide them with everything they need to be happy, loved, and successful. And you just never know if you’re doing enough. That is what makes parenting difficult.
But the one thing we must remember is anything worth having is worth working hard for. And my children are so worth all of it. The late nights, the cooking for, the cleaning up after, shopping for, chauffeuring around, and especially worrying about, loving, and taking care of when they are sick. So as hard as this parenting gig is, it has also been the most worth while and meaningful job of my life and I wouldn’t ask for anything else. Which is why I can’t complain about even the most menial of tasks that come with parenting.
So the next time you think, this is hard, will you remember how worth it it is?