Right before we left for our trip to California I turned in Maggie’s kindergarten registration and Audrey decided to potty train herself. Any mother in her right mind would NOT try to get their kid to start taking care of their ‘business’ in random public bathrooms while on vacation. But my go-and-getter second child proved to me that sometimes timing isn’t about what’s on the calendar or how old somebody is. A reminder that I’ll probably be getting for the rest of my life. I love rules and structure, but I also yearn to be wild and throw caution to the wind. Some might argue that my version of ‘throwing caution to the wind’ is a bit mild, but hey, it makes me happy.
Shortly after we got back from our trip, I met with a friend for a walk and she shared how her child has been struggling these days. Their story is private, but one that brought me nearly to tears and reminded me that this time of parenthood, motherhood really, that I’m living right now is fleeting. I won’t be there to help my children navigate their choices all the time and the tools that we give them will constantly need to be worked on, changed, fixed, and polished.
So, we’re potty training (maybe trained? I don’t know, ask Audrey) and talking about the big steps of Kindergarten. My plate is full, my cup is overflowing, some of the ‘me’ things that I think need to get done are pushed to the side for another day, another year, another lifetime where my babies are out in the world using their tools. Even then, it won’t matter what the schedule says, I’ll be here.
Ah, motherhood.