MOC6-9, Advice to Your Future Self

Storyteller Reed, Just Jaimee, TLP
Template: Traci Reed, Sweet Shoppe Designs

Journaling:
The last day of school is a day I both love and dread. On the one hand, I’m out of work and able to spend a lot more time with the kids. On the other hand, it’s three months of struggling to come up with activities for the kids. Three months of sibling squabbles. Three months of hearing “I’m bored.” Three months of having someone talk my ear off every moment of the day. Three months of every errand being a major production. Three months without any time to myself. Of course, there’s a lot more good than bad in those three months with the kids. Our relationships are strengthened and we genuinely enjoy each other’s company (at least most days!) But there’s a reason I’m focusing on the negatives right now.

One day the kids will have moved on from these lazy summer days at home with me. I’ll look back at these days with rose colored glasses, remembering the togetherness and forgetting the way that each day sometimes seemed to drag on forever. When that day comes and these kids of mine are parents, remember how it felt to need that break so badly. Remember how much it would have meant to have someone take the kids for just a few hours or a few days. Find a way to do it, even if we live far from each other. Remember the hard parts of parenting, and try my best to support them through it all.