By Veronica
The advice that other parents and grandparents give – “cherish every moment, because it will all be over too soon” – can inspire a quiet rage in me. That advice is easy to give, but impossible to follow when you haven’t brushed your teeth in 36 hours because when your vomiting dictator allows you to put her down, all you can do is stumble to bed and sleep for 37 minutes before she screams for you again. The person advising you to treasure every moment of childhood rarely says, “And hey! Let me stop by and do your grocery shopping and balance your checkbook so that you have more time for cherishing – because you never get that time back!”
But my oldest daughter started kindergarten last week, and I became a cliche. By the end of her first day, I knew that children DO grow up too fast.
The night before school began, I worried and prayed. At one point I leaned against my husband, taking strength from his solid, hairy arm against mine, and said, “It’s like giving birth all over again.”
Az was not impressed. “I was with you when you gave birth, and you are not making the kinds of sounds you made then.”
But I stand by my statement. I was pushing her out into the world a second time, only this time, I wasn’t ready. I wanted to keep her with me longer. But ready or not, I packed her lunch, zipped the school supplies into her backpack, and drove her to school.
Time goes too fast. Cherish every minute.
When Veronica is not moping around the house missing her daughter, she blogs at Toddled Dredge.
This is so true. I often use to look at my elders and roll my eyes when they said things like,”Enjoy it while it lasts” or “Sleep when they baby sleeps”. It is harder done than said. When you have a scraming toddler who doesnt care if you have stuff to get done sometimes whose precious smiles slip by uncherished and memories go unmade.
I have a year before my oldest starts kindergarten. Right now he goes half a day to preschool and my 3 yo will start his first year of headstart next month. It is all bittersweet.
I’m SO with you. My baby started kindergarten yesterday and I was a mess. He was fine but I worried about a million little things. He drove me crazy all summer, fighting with his little brother, wanting to watch TV all day, not eating a good dinner, but now that he’s gone to full day kindergarten I wish he were home cuddling with me and driving me crazy again.
They really do grow up so fast, and while we know how important it is to cherish each day, I’m still not looking forward to potty training #2 next week. Some things don’t deserve “cherishing.”
Yes. It’s easier said than done, easier to do in hindsight than in the present.
But battling our way to cherishing is a worthy goal every day.
I love your husband’s comment. 🙂
I understand you probably get tons of junk posts and selfless promotions, however I honestly do value your blog and your mission.Yes you are right Veronica. Cherish every minute with your children. Let them feel they are special and that you love them sooo much!
and we’ll have to learn it all over again tomorrow, right? 🙂 I go through stages of wistfulness & then stages of ‘when will this baby stuff ever be over, and will I survive?’ 🙂 But in retrospect, I can definitely say that, yes, it does go SO fast.
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