Learn from your children

Have you ever sat back and thought about how children process information, go through major life changes, explore their world? I spent a good portion of the day today doing that.

When do we lose the ability to just "be"? Puberty? The day we are handed our driver's license? When we give birth to our first child? We spend the majority of our time cleaning, cooking, working and go go going that we forget to just sit down, breathe and just BE. Lay on the floor and drive a toy car around. It doesn't matter if you are playing WITH your child or if they have been sleeping for 3 hours....try it, it is unbelievably calming.

Kids are the most accepting, loving people. Life just IS to them. They don't care what color you are, if a family has two mommies or two daddies, they just don't care. Things like that are not important to them. Should they be all that important to us?

When does building a fort from 3 bedsheets become boring and stupid? I am 30 years old and I had a blast doing just that today. I realize that life changes and responsibilities get bigger and more stressful but do we have so little time in our day to build a fort? To climb a tree? To jump in a big pile of yellow leaves? You know what? I don't care if you do not have children. Go outside, rake a pile of leaves and plop yourself into it. Now.

Slow down, enjoy every moment. Be thankful.

When your children are fighting for the 83rd time in 3 hours, remind yourself that they are learning how to negotiate and go after what they want. And that they really like ice packs for their battle wounds.

When your 21 month old throws food on the floor, again, remember that she is expressing her dissatisfaction with the yummy goodness you provided her. And that she thinks you need to mop.

When all 3 of your children scream for an entire day, be thankful they have nice, strong lungs. And be thankful that yours are louder.

When you think that you cannot take it anymore, feel free to lock yourself in the bathroom and scream. It feels good. And kind of scares the kids a bit.

And at the end of the day, when you tuck your kids into bed, be thankful that you managed to survive another day.....and so did your children.

I am writing this mostly as a reminder to myself. To calm down, breathe, and just let it be. I am outnumbered every day and sometimes it feels like I may completely break down and run away. I don't. But I daydream about it often. Like hourly.