The "Worth it" Moments.

Sometimes those moments are hard to find in a busy or chaotic day. Maybe not for everyone, but I'll be the first one to say that every day is not sunshine and rainbows when it comes to raising children. They have attitude. They have their own complicated wants and needs. They have big feelings and more often than not, cannot articulate why those feelings are happening. I do not enjoy disciplining them (and I have definitely stared at their closed bedroom door, sat on the stairs, and cried myself!) But we all know we have to appropriately correct behavior in order to make sure these hooligans can (somehow by the grace of goodness) survive without us someday, and then possibly raise their own hooligans.

And sometimes it's not even their behaviors or feelings that makes a day hard - it's our fault! I guess I had this pre-conceived notion that when you become a caregiver, it's ALWAYS all about the child. (Look away now keyboard warriors...) But I am here to tell you - ignore the reels, and TT videos - it's not. And it shouldn't be. Have you ever had a hard day? Like a day that kicked your entire arse, and all you want to do is just eat sweets and watch tv? Or okay, let's say a day when you are extremelyyyyy tired. And the last thing on your mind is chasing down tornado spawns. (If you say neither of these has ever happened to you, liar liar pants on fire.) Obviously children must be minded, and clean and fed and supervised and all the things, and you do the very best you can to make sure they learn something in a day too.

But.

I am here to tell you that today I had a hard day. Nothing wrong with that. It's allowed. (Yes it is allowed. You are allowed. You are a person too. You have needs too.) My husband watched my sweetturds play for a bit while I took a moment to put in a load of laundry and just sit with some feelings I had. After my moment to myself, I literally said to everyone in the house "Let's go get in the car." I was met by whines and PJ's infamous "HOW LONG IS IT GONNA TAKE!?" And a meltdown over shoes, etc. But with God as my witness if I had to tuck one disheveled turd-ler under each arm - without shoes - and barely make it out the door with pants on myself, we were getting in the frickin car.

And I started driving. I drove to the ice cream place. And we ate ice cream and peanut butter and jellies for dinner. And after that, I drove to a park and all 4 of us played in the splash pad. Fully clothed - no swimsuits - and just had a blast. PJ is actually not necessarily a wild guy, so this was a big deal for him and I loved watching him be in that moment. I was sopping wet and so proud.

So two things can be true: today was hard AND tonight was a win. And heck yeah I am going to brag about it. Because even though I did not need an extra sundae (YES I got a free sundae too!), it was a "worth it moment." Tonight was so worth it.

xoxo

Madi