Becca's Place

I looked up today and discovered that I've become the crazy Mom that always used to bug me, make me question whether they should have brought kids into this world. You know the one... The woman walking calmly through the grocery store while her child wails in their shopping cart, the one walking through a silent library with a screaming toddler tucked under her arm, the Mom who walked out of the restaurant leaving a pile of food on the floor under her child's chair. Yup, that's me. That's who I've become

One evening fairly early in our marriage my husband and I went out to a restaurant with our pastor, his wife, and their two boys, ages 3 and 5. The boys spent the entire time running around the entire restaurant (not just our table, or even just our area), screaming, crying, grabbing food off of other people's plates, and generally making everybody in a twenty foot radius miserable. I remember my husband and I turning to each other after getting in the car and saying "no way".

Well, here we are. Parents of two girls, a three year old and a seven month old, and no, we don't let they run screaming around a restaurant (no, our seven month old isn't running yet, but that's not the point here) while we calmly discuss food and life with each other. No, we don't let them do just anything, express every emotion on the planet in everybody's face around them.

However, you do find that some things just aren't as important as you thought they were. I am so excited that my three year old can finally feed herself that I'm quite willing to let her drop a quarter of her meal on the floor. And it is impossible for me to go by myself to the library, so I'm quite willing to take her into the adult area, let her run around in my sight while I choose some books, and then carry her screaming away from the wonderful labyrinth that she's just discovered will allow her to hide from me.

Yup, parenthood ain't easy, and actually being there isn't anything like what I thought it would be. Way better, and some things just aren't as important as I thought they were- like screaming in quiet places, and food on the floor.