Parenthood is a massive rollercoaster. One of the most simultaneously frustrating and joyful aspects about raising young children is that they are constantly changing.
Nothing stays the same.
It’s is a double-edged sword. How beautiful it is to watch them roll over for the first time; but then what a nightmare when naptime transforms into endless trips up and down the stairs to ‘flip’ your baby. Because rolling over is only the first stage. It’s sometime later, that they learn to roll back. And no-one likes to be stuck face-down on their bellies. Especially not babies.
You soon learn to take nothing for granted, and NEVER to tell anyone how well your baby sleeps/eats/potty trains/etc because the instant you do, they will do the opposite.
Instead, you stay on your toes, tiptoeing carefully around each stage and adjusting life along the way. It’s the only way to survive. But in fact, adaption is an excellent skill to learn. If you can relax, and put your trust in Mother Nature, she’ll see you good.
Time and time again, a situation arises that you think you’ll never get through. But if you take a step back, and let nature run its course, you’ll see it’s generally ok.
Take those first few weeks of newborn life for example. It’s tough. Incessant. You’re exhausted, everything you own is covered in poo and puke and you can’t remember the last time you ate more than two mouthfuls of food, let along showered. And after a month or so, you start feeling like you may have made a serious error. Well, just at that point, nature steps in. Your baby begins smiling at you. And your heart melts.
You’re back in the game.
It happens time and time again. That last summer before they start school: ‘They just seem too young’, you lament at the beginning of July. Spin on two months and frankly you can’t get them in their uniform fast enough. Somewhere in those eight weeks your delightful little poppet has transformed into a back-chatting, disobedient little so-and-so and although you are certain you will miss them; ‘It will be good for them to get into a routine’.
Seven years later the knell of secondary school sounds and again your heart squeezes slightly. Yet as the final weeks of primary school arrive, they almost look out of place on those tiny chairs, their jumpers and trousers creeping up their arms and legs. They’re ready. And that makes everything easier.
Just like birds shove their young out of the nests, trusting nature to let them fly, and bulls chase juvenile males from the herd to go it alone, it’s nice to know that these stages will pass, and ultimately, nature will prevail.
So when the next change rears its head, remember to trust in Mother Nature.
She has your back. And those piles of dirty crockery you recover from clothes-strewn bedrooms certainly help soothe those ‘leaving home’ worries don’t they!
Thank you Ma’am.
Ruth x
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