The Monday Mommy Rant...

My dear friend Julie sent me an email this morning and got me teary eyed and made me laugh all at the same time. Raising Children by Anna Quindlen, a Newsweek Columnist. What an insightful letter and my kiddies are still young so there is time to really start appreciating all the little moments. The writer talks about how her children are grown and all the worrying she did raising them and just trying to get through to the next thing(i.e dinner, bath and bedtime) and how looking back she wished she would of just enjoyed more of living in those moments. When you have kids, you become so invested in the bigger picture you forget to enjoy the little snippets of their lives and one day you find yourself looking at old pictures and watching videos wishing you would of treasured those moments more. Nobody talks about how hard raising kids can be, so you go through the motions of trying to do it all and follow a specific guideline of what parenting is and trying to keep up with "the Joneses" and that can rob you of what really matters.


I read this quote from the same writer but different article titled A Teachable Moment and she talks about how hard raising kids can be, "It's almost like AA for moms: "Hi, I'm Anna, and I repeatedly ignored demands for juice and then snapped because the whining was driving me insane." It can be a great job, motherhood, but it would be nice if everyone could be more honest about how overwhelming the job can be, and more willing to find ways to support and inform the people who are trying to do it".


Families go through the same thing just different variations, parenting is hard for everyone. The lesson here is enjoy your children, laugh more and share more.