Don’t Tell Me To Hurry Up

Being told to hurry myself along in order to leave the house is one thing I can-not-stand. Not based on the pretences that I don’t like to be told what to do but based on the fact that hey, I’ve just done 100 other jobs prior to trying to spend a few decent minutes on myself. This isn’t just an ‘I’ rant. I’m pretty sure anyone or in this light, any mother, will have caught the same feels at some point in their lag.

 

One of the things about being Mum in my home means it’s my job to get everyone out of the house in a timely fashion and alive. I don’t think Anam knows how much weighs on me to make that 3pm function or that 10am footy game. It never is intentional to force us into the pit of lateness, but half the time it happens because there is so much to do and only one of me to do it all. Don’t get me wrong, there is the rare occasion where Anam will stick out the morning with me until we leave but that’s not all the time. I wish. I’ve just come to accept that we just aren’t wired the same ‘lol.

No matter how much time you allow yourself to be ready or how well you prepare for a clean departure, you are bound to wind up with a few tasks more that’ll cut into ‘your time – to get ready’. Well at least that’s exactly what happens to me! I could write a full list of what needs to be done like I always do the night before as well as prepack what needs to be worn or taken to save time and somehow we will still end up behind the clock. It just isn’t realistic to follow your list in order of time when you have a couple of little people to tend to. You’ve just got to remain open-minded even when it feels like you are the only flexible adult in the house.

The real frustration comes from the part where apparently it is your fault right. The part where you are told “you were too busy doing your makeup!” or  “did you have to straighten your hair!”. Somebody should save him if he ever says anything like that ‘haha. The only reason why it seems like it was “the makeup” or “the hair” that made us late is because everything else cut into “my time”. On top of that list I made last night I also had to clean up after breakfast, shower and change the children, clean up the toybox that was pulled out 5 times and hang out the clothes you just asked me to wash for work on Monday. So go figure.

Unless you don’t want to leave the house with an irate troll as a wife, then I suggest all you men just sit in the car, be adorable, and please wait. For your own sake that is.

Steenah xx

“Mummy I Want Cuddles”

So here I am lying in bed thinking about something that has been jogging my mind all week.

The other evening at around about bed time, Miss 4 staggers up to me with open arms and says, “Mummy I want cuddles because I’m tired”. My heart instantly always gets super warm and fuzzy whenever she pines for me because half or should I say most of the time, this darling is a wrecking ball. However, Daddy at the other end of the table gave me a stare – a polite “she’s too old for that” stare.

Was he for real? But then I could ask myself the same question – I cuddle-lessly told her just to get ready for bed and that I’d be with her shortly – so was I for real? Were we both for real? Since when did we stop giving our children cuddles because they are too old.

In hindsight, this isn’t the first time such thing has happened – but don’t worry I have never been the one to initiate any stops to this so called “baby behaviour” – I am my mother’s daughter and I also enjoy playing good cop bad cop ‘haha. What actually got me thinking at that very tick of the clock was, is there actually an expiry date on treating your kids like, I guess, kids?

Our girls still enjoy the odd bear hold, they still prefer to sleep with us (sigh) and they still ask for help even when they are fully capable. Apparently these are the kinds of things that Daddy thinks they shouldn’t be doing, and more. Don’t get me wrong, I understand discipline and the need to raise strong independant women, which are his thoughts exactly, but from what age are we meant to start? At 7 and 4 years old I think there is no right or wrong. If you can balance and be consistent when drawing fine lines, I think there is no existence of that saying “too much love can make a kid too soft”.

In my mind you can always be there for your children, but always make your presence felt. These children of ours will get to an age where they will no longer ask for hugs and I fear those days where all will be but a brief yell out, “goodnight Mum, goodnight Dad!”. There will be a time where they’ll no longer want to sleep with us and furthermore have their own families to sleep with. When we’re grey and hopefully still driving, there will be no 4 year old in the backseat asking for a hand to hold as comfort to car nap. We aren’t always going to be cool. They will grow to be their own people, and we will at some point become irrelevant to how they go about their day to day. If we stop now, all we’ll be left with will be memories to have us wishing we didn’t push them to grow up.

 

So sorry Daddy, I can only compromise. I’m not giving up my child whipped ways just yet. I’d rather have given her those cuddles than be left a couple hugs short of what could have been.

Steenah x