Being a mom encompasses so many roles: doctor,
psychiatrist, teacher, seamstress, veterinarian, home-based working mom,
etc. After a recent excursion, I have dutifully added
"hopeless" to my definition of a MOM.
Most moms are on the job 24/7. There are times,
though, that I do need just a moment to myself. It isn’t because I do
not want my kids around, it is just so demanding to be their legs, arms,
encyclopedias and chairs all of the time.
"Mom, I can get my treats but I can’t reach
the washcloth that is right beside them."
"Mama {scream} there is a flying moth outside
of my closed window."
As you may know, being a mom is a lot of work. I
laugh at some of my younger friends who complain about being pregnant
– they have no clue how a nice round body that is difficult to
navigate is so refreshing compared to the lifetime of physical labor
required once that baby is born.
There definitely are days that I daydream about
being a blushing bride and then a glowing mom-to-be. How fun those days
were! The only being I had to dress in the morning was myself and,
although it was sometimes difficult to find enough to quench my hunger,
the only mouth I had to feed was my own.
I even recall how helpful my husband was with all
three of my pregnancies. He helped me in and out of the car, he never
complained when I asked him to stay home with the kids so I could go to
the doctor and he was so understanding when I had a craving and we had
to run to town for french fries and ice cream.
My husband recently had a meeting in Las Vegas and
we decided that we would kill two birds with one stone. We had not seen
my mother-in-law since Christmas so we invited her and my
Grandmother-in-law up to baby-sit the kids while we escaped for a long
weekend…and we had not spent any real time alone with each other since
the kids had been born. Ah, just the thought of getting away from
someone spilling their milk on me or pulling my hair (because it was
there) was enough to overshadow my emotions of leaving my children with
their grandmothers.
In the city that never sleeps, I couldn’t seem
to make myself sleep in no matter how late we stayed up. I kept dragging
my husband to sites that the kids would enjoy. I kept looking at other
families that were there and wishing my youngin’s little hands were
clasped to my fingers. I called home two or three times a day just to be
sure I wasn’t missing any of their milestones.
I returned home more tired than I was when we
left! "What happened?" I asked my husband.
