Celebrate the Small Wins

Being present for your child’s childhood can be challenging for many parents, including myself. The hustle and bustle of busy work schedules, preparing school lunches, scheduling, and attending appointments, the day-to-day list of things to do, and don’t get me started on cleaning the house, washing dishes, and trying to conquer the never-ending pile of LAUNDRY! I swear there is an invisible laundry chute in my house, and it finds humour in dumping more laundry, when I was just about to celebrate with joy that I had a laundry free weekend, but who am I kidding, I have three kids! I will never have a laundry free weekend.

Our lives are busier than ever, and it is understandable how easy it is to let time go without being fully engaged in our child’s lives. However, being present for our children is crucial for their emotional and mental development and for our own connection with our children, our family, and ourselves.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day with my youngest. We started the day by going to a local park and I loved hearing his giggles and seeing his beautiful smile as he begged me to push him higher and higher. In that moment, I realized that I haven’t been fully present for the past two years and it hit me hard. It is so easy to get caught up in the things that don’t matter, the everyday stresses that can be overwhelming, the idea that everyone around is judging us on how clean our homes are, or how many days I have worn my hair in the signature mom bun, and in reality, no one really cares about those trivial things, especially the ones that matter the most, our children.

So, I decided that the battle between me and my need to have everything organized and clean was being put on hold, at least for the day. Once my two older boys got home from school, we all went to the park, enjoyed some pizza, we all played a game of street hockey, where I lost miserably and then a game of mission impossible, which I have never heard of before, but basically it consisted of myself chasing my boys, all while they laughed and screamed with excitement that I couldn’t catch them because I was old and too slow, which obviously isn’t true, I was letting them win, ahem, ahem, and honestly, it was pure BLISS! I loved every second of it. I was present, I was engaged, and I felt every bit of love that was bouncing from me to my boys, and then back to me.

I know that the realities of parenting and the responsibilities that come with it, all while running a business will set in tomorrow, but for today, I will enjoy this win and soak it all in for as long as I can.

XO,
Sandra