My Parenting Epiphany

All you parents know what I mean when I say that caring for a baby, toddler or preschooler is a full-time job in and of itself. All parents work, whether they stay at home or go to an office during the day. Some parents just don't make any money for their efforts, which is another topic for another time. Today I'm going to talk about when I realized my two girls were really maturing and becoming Big Kids. It wasn't a gradual process, as much of child-rearing tends to be. You change a million diapers, then slowly transition to Pull-Ups, then big girl underwear during the day, then at night. The baby is a big girl who uses the toilet, but only after beating the potty-training horse half to death over a long period of time. It wasn't reminiscent of the endless newborn days when you wish the baby would smile, sit up, roll over, play with a toy or anything besides the non-stop sleeping, pooping, peeing, eating and crying that has suddenly become your way of life.

I'll tell you how I knew I had finally attained the role of a Big Kid Mom.

One day when my girls were about 8 and 5, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a strange sensation. I had felt this way before, but not in many years. And it felt awesome.

I was BORED.

Not that I hadn't been bored during the previous 8 years. Playing the same game with your kids forever, reading the same story a billion times and other "small-child-friendly" activities are certainly boring at times. However, it's a different kind of boring. You're always busy with something, even if it's mundane. There's always some chore to be done, some task to take care of, and you feel like you can't ever really catch up. The house is a mess, there are meals that need preparing, you have to go grocery shopping and a fight is breaking out in the next room about "why does SHEEEEEEEEEEEE get the pink one???" You know the drill. And right when you feel like you are finally gaining ground, someone gets sick. Darn it!!!!

This was a different kind of bored feeling. The kind you used to get before you had kids. The kind where you HAVE NOTHING TO DO. I couldn't believe it. I was bored out of my mind, and it was the BEST feeling. My kids were actually entertaining themselves for more than 15 minutes at a time, and this pattern had been going on long enough for me to finally notice that I was getting some space to myself. It was a wonderful epiphany. I've been a Big Kid Mom for a couple of years now. Sometimes I get bored. And I tell myself to enjoy every second of it.