Oxygen

Single mothers, I salute you.
Mothers of multiples, I bow down in wonder.
Moms of any number greater than one, I shake my head in amazement.
Stay-at-home or working outside the home, you're goddesses.

How do you do it? And I don't just mean how do you get through the day from A to B, wrangling school drop-offs and homework and picking up groceries and running the duster around and making dinner and performing your away job if you have one.

How do you do it with grace and patience and understanding? And maybe a drop or two of humour?

Oh, I can occasionally make it look as easy as the best of them, we all have our good days when the sun shines as we wake up and then trip lightly through our day without a care in the world. Especially if you're a blogger and only write about the good stuff.

I only have one child, and she will be our one and only. Other parents of more than one have said to me how "easy" it seems when they are able to run an errand with only one of their children tagging along. I nod (just a tad disgruntled on the inside) and say yep, I'm lucky, Sweetpea's so good. And she is.

But there are days, like a few I've had recently, when I wonder just how parents DO it when they have more than one demanding their attention, affection, time. Or questioning every decision I make and throwing back at me lines that I previously tossed out casually. Like, "I don't have to do anything I don't want to do". Luckily I have a somewhat reasonable child who seems to at least partially absorb our talks about respect and listening (and how it goes both ways).

But. Those reasoning talks always seem to take place when we're on our way out the door (late, of course) which causes my nerves to reach their limit although I try to maintain my equilibrium, hoping that my oh-so-calm demeanour will rub off. More often than not, I end up hollering at her to go for a time-out, and then take one myself. Which is probably when I should be reminding myself of this.

And because she does not have a sibling, I (and English hubby) am the only distraction she has while at home. Most of the time this is a lovely thing. But I don't have to say it, do I? Sometimes you wish they'd just leave you alone. My grandmother used to tell us tongue-in-cheek to go play in traffic, and I get it.

Today was a good although exhausting day. We made a school project, went to swimming and soccer, got three loads of laundry done, and managed to maintain both our good moods for the most part.




This past Friday was not one of those good days. But this image of Sweetpea hugging a tree would make you think it was.

Especially when she said I'm getting oxygen from the tree, Mumma. If I had posted only that last line with the photo anyone would have thought - what a great day they must have had! But it wouldn't be the whole picture.









Yet, I'm grateful for those days. They remind me to cling to the small sweet moments when the bigger picture isn't so sweet. To take in some oxygen and hug a tree.

I'm assuming that's how you all do it too. And I offer you my admiration and gratitude because knowing I'm not the only one makes it a whole lot easier.