I'VE ENTERED ANOTHER PARENTING DIMENSION

I’ve Entered Another Parenting Dimension
21 April 2016

“Just be grateful for these moments. A crying baby is nothing compared to what’s to come”.

You know those older mums of older kids who say these things while you’re at your wits end, contemplating what the hell you’ve done and will you’re life ever be the way it was again??

I am now the older mum sans the “be gratefuls”. They don’t help anyone at anytime.

My kids are now 11 and 7. They’re amazing. I say “brush your teeth and hop in to bed” and they do just that. But yesterday those words from that older mum came back to haunt me.

After I’d picked my kids up from the bus stop I heard from the back seat “mum, I feel lonely at school”. STABBED RIGHT IN THE HEART. I didn’t want to panic. These are the moments that make or break my kid’s life, I can’t screw this up. No pressure at all.

I asked her why. She told me she preferred to do different things than all the other kids at school and so no one hangs out with her. Then she cried. Then I cried.

I felt my kid’s pain for two reasons. 1. She’s my kid and it’s so hard to see her so upset and really hurting. 2. I know this pain too well. Being a loner at school was such a painful thing and I wanted my big kid to understand that the different ones are the special ones.

I played her a little video of Neil Gaiman and that seemed to make her feel a little better. And I cried. That video ALWAYS makes me cry. Here it is for you all to cry at too. What a beautiful fella.

So it seems the older mum was right, in a way, I mean she could have given me a hand instead of telling me to be grateful. But I’m learning the older my kids get, it isn’t so much a physical sleep deprived challenge rather a real battle of the heart.