Growing With Our Kids

Every now and then, I am reminded of what my colleague once said to me when I
complained about life with little kids: “Little people give you little problems; big people give you big problems.”

The other day I saw a wavy blonde two-year old take off his rain boots in the middle of a busy intersection during a blustery storm. I was so happy not to be the mother, who was trying to hold his hand, balance an umbrella under the torrential rainfall, and coax him to get his boots back on so they could get out of the middle of the street.

After the mom managed to get to the sidewalk, and traffic resumed its pulse around the elementary school drop-off at 8:00 a.m., I realized that I am indeed getting older. Even though I have a 5-year-old at home, Iʼve been through kindergarten twice already. Food smears on the newly steam-cleaned sofa, hair trimmings from a pair of plastic-handled kid scissors on the bathroom floor, tantrums in the grocery store over not buying Cocoa Puffs – all are messy, and lobotomy inducing, but they are part of the early wheel of motherhood.

Now that I am old enough to witness a new flock of mothers who are just beginning their elementary school journey, some of them still pregnant, others dripping with babies in arms and toddlers at heels, I have the gift of perspective. The problems with my oldest daughter remind me that I have survived the little problems. As I mature, so does she. And those problems do get bigger.

Knowing that I have moved beyond the stage of caring for a little boy who wants to jump in puddles barefooted, middle of the street or not, helps me savor those unexpected but uniquely endearing moments in my own family, almost like a pause in time, while also appreciating the endearing moments of others, rainboots notwithstanding. Itʼs moments of clarity like this that give me the courage to ride the roller coaster of growing up.