Take the Time

As I watched my four year old daughter playing – chatting away to herself, thoroughly enjoying her make believe world, it hit me – the next year as my youngest approaches the age of five these moments will slowly begin to disappear.

She will start to spend more time at Kindergarten and less time at home. She will become more aware of the world around her and less aware of the make believe ‘bubble’ toddlers are so fascinated in. She will get through Kindergarten and get closer and closer to taking her first big girl steps through the school gates.

As Mothers we get tired. We get frustrated, especially during the baby years. There are fantastic times and there are trying times! There are moments you feel will never end. The endless feeding. The crying at all hours of the night. And let’s not forget the I’ve just dressed you in a lovely clean outfit and now your nappy has overflowed everywhere! How many times have we all tiredly wished these moments would get easier – quickly? And if you are like me, all the while worrying myself sick over the state – of all things – my house! The washing wasn’t done, there were toys all over the lounge room, and spilt cereal still on the table courtesy of my eldest!

As my youngest became easier being quite happy in her bouncer among her soft toys, and my eldest was at Kindergarten, I would actually relish the time to clean and tidy, to put everything into some sort of order!

And now as I watch my baby grow and change, still loving her make believe ‘bubble’ my feelings have changed. Now believe me, I am a person who likes neatness and order and well and truly suffers from OCD! But every day I am forcing myself to worry less and observe more; prioritise differently and play more.

We read Lifestyle Blogs and ‘Like’ pages posted on Facebook offering all sorts of motherly advice and suggestions of how to be the perfect parent, to have the perfect house, to have it all. My advice is this, savour time with your children. Soak up as much of their pre-school innocence that you can. Before you know it they are off to school and sleepovers. They still want you to spend time with them, but in a different way.

Now, I am not preaching and I am not in any way claiming to know it all or proclaiming to the world that I have found the secret to perfect parenting, I am just sharing my own recent experiences and feelings. Now I must also add that I am still a neat freak, and still relish any time I get to make my house sparkle! But I am relishing time with my baby more. So please, if you take anything from this blog, please take this – we can’t always have it all, regardless of what all the Lifestyle Gurus tell us. We need to decide for ourselves what having it all is to us as individuals. Everyone is different and everyone’s circumstances are different. Try and take parenting advice from these platforms as suggestive rather than prescriptive. And the next time your little one is sitting on a bean bag using the TV remote to paddle their bean bag boat – join in! It was the best fun I have had in ages! And the dinner dishes were still sitting in the sink.