Ever have one of those days? Your child didn’t sleep last night, so you are running on two hours of sleep. The one thing that will save you…your coffee, hot, caffeine filled coffee, only to find out you are out of coffee. While you searching in the pantry for anything that could be considered coffee you hear a loud crash followed by scream. You drop the coffee you just found, coffee grounds go everywhere, run towards the now crying child and find this (see below) your child covered in cheerios and milk. How did this happen, like really how? Is this my life? When did that happen? It is one of those things you don’t think about, but every stage as a parent we are worried about different things.
Baby – Bring baby home from hospital, now what? Then you start worrying if they are still breathing, I can’t tell you how many times I got up in the middle of the night the first few weeks to check my child was breathing. Yes, just breathing! Mind you there is no reason my child would stop breathing, he had no respiratory issues, he was born full term, and completely healthy. But I just kept checking, and checking, he was fine and never stopped breathing by the way.
Toddler – When your baby starts walking it is so amazing, you are so excited for those first few steps. Like it truly is the most amazing thing you have ever seen and life could not be any more perfect than at that moment. Unfortunately for me my child started walking at 9 months, cause he just wasnt content to just ‘t crawl. For him crawling was just what he did until he could reach something to pull himself up on. When your child starts to walk they fall, a lot. So much so that your child will have bumps and bruises all over their body, and sometimes on their face. You wonder if people think you gave your child that black eye, then you think screw them, and while you are thinking this your child just fell and bumped their head…again!
Preschooler – Your child can walk and talk and may even be potty trained, points to you if you did this before your child turned 3. The scariest thing that happens at this point is they run off in a parking lot, or in a park or pretty much anywhere. The other thing you start to worry about is silence. Why don’t I hear anything? Silence at this age means they are into something, something they know they shouldn’t be into. Has everyone seen video of the two boys who played with paint? Google it, and be happy that it never happened to you.
School Age – Congratulations you made it to the first day of kindergarten! You are excited for your child, also a little excited to have a little me time. What you don’t know before this is how many different types of diets children have, unless your child has one. No joke one child in my son’s class could not eat gluten, peanuts, or any nuts, anything with fructose and something else. I just felt so horrible because I didn’t want to exclude a little boy who had enough restrictions, how do I bring in something with no gluten, nuts, or sugar? In the end you learn there are things children with food allergies can eat.
We all have had one of those days because we are parents. In the end we learn to enjoy those bad days because it makes us realize how special all the other days are. Today for instance we are cuddled up on the couch watching Goonies = good day!
