Welcome to My World, Cake Optional
We all find ourselves fretting the tough stuff, often forgetting to relish in the excitement of our children. The hardest part about seeing the world through my children’s eyes has been the fact that I spent so many years forcing myself to think like an adult. Having kids can definitely alter your perspective of what’s important. Often parenting advice will include the phrase “this too shall pass”. In the early years it is difficult to think that there will ever be another night of uninterrupted sleep or even better, will you ever get to sleep alone with your spouse again?
In my most desperate moments, I turn to chocolate. My mind wanders back to a time when my boys were about six months and two-and-one-half years. My husband was working long hours as was my mom and my patience was being pushed. I had yet to let go of that premonition that I had to be the adult and act like an adult. I would find myself in the floor for hours at a time playing but my mind was endlessly trying to figure out if we were ever going to have clean clothes again or what about a decent meal. Finally, on one long tiring day in particular, I had started to harass my husband about just how much longer he planned to work. The answer would come in spurts from “another couple of hours” to “give me thirty minutes”.
When he arrived home that day, I had given up all attempts to be the adult. I had made a conscious decision to forgo laundry and food for dirty clothes and chocolate. I found a canister of chocolate cake icing in the cabinet, grabbed one spoon and the three of us sat down together. I would get a big spoonful for myself, then one for each kid before starting over with a nice large rounded heap for myself. We were finally having a moment of clarity in this house.
I apparently appeared to be at the end of my rope because when my husband finally arrived home, he was in complete shock that I, the mother who had insisted that our kids not indulge in caffeine or chocolate for that matter, had caved. I simply sat and watched as he prepared himself a bowl of cereal only to spill it on himself when the two boys decided that his cereal was going to make an awesome dinner for them as well. All I could say as I shoved yet one more monster size scoop of chocolate cake icing into my mouth was “Welcome to my world dear, welcome to my world”.
This guest post was written by Jerri Ann of Mom~E~Centric. Jerri Ann is an Internet-junkie who has been writing online since 1999. She has 2 boys, ages 6 and 8, and is married to a man she affectionately calls Boy Genius. Mom~E~Centric is about learning life, learning how to take the punches and put them in their place. “Landing a punch is not near as important as feeling like you are in the fight.”
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