The chaos of motherhood is bliss.
I’m currently laying in bed in Strasbourg, France. It’s 3:10 a.m. here, 9:10 p.m. at home in Indianapolis. I’m wide awake, wondering when our luggage is going to show up at our hotel, when the people above us will stop yelling and turn the music down and how my toddler is going to sleep for the next few days. On top of that, wondering where our luggage is since the airline can’t manage to tell us. And which one of our four pieces isn’t going to make it since one of them was lost and the airline also can’t manage to tell us which one.
Did I think this possibility through while packing? Of course I didn’t so it’s literally everything we need for the trip; clothes, underwear, toiletries, shoes, etc. Did I also think through the fact that everything in Strasbourg is closed on Sundays and it’s a miracle we were able to buy a toothbrush and shampoo? Negative.
Motherhood is like this, isn’t it?
The constant adapting to changing situations, the mental pressure, dodging one bullet after the next, finding a solution for everyone else’s problem. I don’t know about you but I feel like I’m constantly psyching myself up for activity ‘a’ only to have catastrophe ‘b’ happen which throws everything off. Or it could be the total opposite. I spend more time dreading something, like potty training for instance, than the actual activity itself. {I’m telling you, EIGHT MONTHS of dreading potty training.}
THIS MONTH MORGAN ALSO TALKED ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF MOTHERHOOD: Reflections from an introverted mom
And shall we talk about our parenthood plan?
We have all of these plans for our child when we find out we’re pregnant. We say we’re going to make our baby food. We say our kids will never have candy or sugar, they will eat and drink organic everything. Then we discover the reality of motherhood and our plan is totally changed.
We begin with the best intentions but learn that for our sanity, sometimes something has got to give.
We learn it’s okay to make half of the baby food, it’s okay to use half breast milk and half formula {been there, sister}, and a Happy Meal really isn’t the worst thing on the planet. Who knew everyone on the planet wants to give my child candy and I look like a psycho when I say no? Who knew taking our daughter for a surprise donut trip would light up her face so much?
But in the midst of the chaos of being called “mommy”, we always manage to find the bliss, don’t we?
Being a mother is the best thing that has ever happened to us and we wouldn’t exchange it for anything. We suffer through the hard times and melt when those two little arms are wrapped around us or we see that smile. Our flights were cancelled and rescheduled, our bags were lost, but through all of that, I was still with my family and got to experience our daughter’s pure joy on her first plane ride. I got to walk around a beautiful city with my family {despite desperately trying to find an open store} that we call home for the next month. We may be a constant shape-shifter, a personal psychiatrist, an expert bullet-dodger, a professional mediator, but you know what? I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.
