Moments

“Another rainy day, we’re trapped inside with the train set,
Chocolate on the boil, steaming windows when we met.”
From the song “Another Sunny Day” by Belle and Sebastian

I love this line because it captures a moment. Moments are really all we have in life. I recently had a conversation with someone about whether the joys of having kids outweigh the loss of freedom, the weight of responsibility, and the work involved. Lots of people speak in generalities about how great it is to be a parent and make it sound like one big party. That’s definitely not the case. But, then life is never one big party. Like any relationship in your life, parent/child relationships have their ups and downs.

To me, it is all worth it because of the way my girls can make me feel. The week after Christmas, we had so much fun together. We just stayed at home, playing with all their new toys and watching their favorite TV shows together, nothing exciting but somehow it was magical. They are at such a wonderful age. Everything is new to them. Sometimes when I am really in tune with them, I get a glimpse of the world through their eyes and commonplace things and events take on a new luster. Those moments make me indescribably happy.

It’s similar to the way places and things seem to look and feel better when you’re in love, but I think it will last a lot longer with kids than it does with romantic relationships. The “new” wears off those relationships relatively quickly; hopefully it will take years and years before my kids start being jaded and cynical about life. If I have my druthers, they’ll never get that way. I used to be the eternal optimist, but age and life experience have somewhat dampened my enthusiasm. I am so fortunate to have my happy little daughters to restore my belief in magic.

I am also very lucky to be able to stay home with them. Nowadays, there is so much talk about “quality time,” but I value the quantity of time we have together. Time just doing ordinary things. Going to the mailbox. Making up our own ball games to play outside. Watching TV shows, then acting them out together. Singing and making up the words as we go, like now . . .

“Chicken noodle on the boil, sticky doorknobs at our house.”