Planet Mom
It is amazing how with God's divine help my husband and I have created 4 individual, unique beings. Each with traits identifiable to my husband and/or myself but with many opposite traits too. I think the saying goes paybacks are a B*, or what goes around comes around. All true. I was not a terrible child, but I had my faults which I see in a new light. The persistent statement my father would make to me as I grew was, "... you just didn't think, why can't you just think?" I get that statement more than ever before. One could quote statistic after statistic of why certain ages (hormones) cause the brain to lack various things needed to "think", but the reality is this makes for pull your hair out, throw in the towel moments.
With 4 children these moments seem to come daily. There are messes to clean up, squabbles to mediate, and much much more. If a person were to only look at the here and now that person may just give up. The great thing that makes me unique to some is that I can see the future. I take pride in planning ahead. Perfect example, I have a list of all the places some even include years my husband and I want to take the kids for vacations before my family of 6 becomes 5, then 4, and so on. On a typical day, I can survive the insanity to get to the reprieve of bedtime.
Then there are days like yesterday when I struggle enough to infect my entire day. I couldn't seem to shake the irritation of the hustle and bustle of preparing school lunches, driving to school, cleaning, cooking, changing diapers, playing, etc. I am sure the mere fact I worked at my part-time job till midnight the night before and was headed back to do it again that night had a huge contribution. As it turned out at that job I read an article in Parents magazine that helped greatly.
We all know others share our struggles, I certainly have a mom website for that. But, there in a fairly decent-sized printed form written to thousands of people was a mother stealing the words out of my mouth. It isn't the daily ho-hum that is my problem. It is the balance of the unpredictable. Another phrase from the MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers Year Them) gave me clarity on the problem at hand. I live on Planet Mom and have been teleported to a new and unfamiliar place.
Planet Mom is what most women feel they have moved to when they become mothers. They do not relate to their nonmarried and/or childless friends. They are still a woman with individual ideals but that is just the brink of it all. I do not think I can write the justification for the differences even now to not offend. If you haven't been to Planet Mom you just cannot understand, and if like anything else after you have left Planet Mom you start to forget what it really was like. Yes, only those living there get it. Now this does not mean perspective from the outside is not ever useful, The Lord knows experience speaks volumes and the difference of perspective helps keep things round. But the here and now of raising kids in the environment at hand changes everything!!
Up until now, I thought my residence in this unusual place was established until my time was up, but it appears the complication gets deeper. There are cities and towns to move to along the way. Baby Town is for newbies who have nothing but their first child at the baby stage. This place is precarious and amazing all at the same time. Every resident of the planet looks back on this time as humorous and new. Once you move to the adolescent stage, possibly even adding another child, you teleport to a whole new surrounding. The same is true with more kids, and even as they age. This I was prepared for. Being booted to the outskirts of the planet now that I am done having kids is the part I was not prepared for. Yes, I am still in a large town. But I am on the edge where baby town moms listen concerning what I have to say and then head back home far away from me to doubt the effectiveness of the difference of children that make my thoughts ring useless to them, whereas the moms who have surpassed my current stage may have moved back to Planet Earth leaving me to my own devices. Wait I haven't hit the teen years yet, Mom's come back...
It is where I see Planet Mom out one window and the real world out the other. Each day I wake up not sure where I belong. Yes, mama never told me there would be days like this... Momma only had me so.....
With 4 children these moments seem to come daily. There are messes to clean up, squabbles to mediate, and much much more. If a person were to only look at the here and now that person may just give up. The great thing that makes me unique to some is that I can see the future. I take pride in planning ahead. Perfect example, I have a list of all the places some even include years my husband and I want to take the kids for vacations before my family of 6 becomes 5, then 4, and so on. On a typical day, I can survive the insanity to get to the reprieve of bedtime.
Then there are days like yesterday when I struggle enough to infect my entire day. I couldn't seem to shake the irritation of the hustle and bustle of preparing school lunches, driving to school, cleaning, cooking, changing diapers, playing, etc. I am sure the mere fact I worked at my part-time job till midnight the night before and was headed back to do it again that night had a huge contribution. As it turned out at that job I read an article in Parents magazine that helped greatly.
We all know others share our struggles, I certainly have a mom website for that. But, there in a fairly decent-sized printed form written to thousands of people was a mother stealing the words out of my mouth. It isn't the daily ho-hum that is my problem. It is the balance of the unpredictable. Another phrase from the MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers Year Them) gave me clarity on the problem at hand. I live on Planet Mom and have been teleported to a new and unfamiliar place.
Planet Mom is what most women feel they have moved to when they become mothers. They do not relate to their nonmarried and/or childless friends. They are still a woman with individual ideals but that is just the brink of it all. I do not think I can write the justification for the differences even now to not offend. If you haven't been to Planet Mom you just cannot understand, and if like anything else after you have left Planet Mom you start to forget what it really was like. Yes, only those living there get it. Now this does not mean perspective from the outside is not ever useful, The Lord knows experience speaks volumes and the difference of perspective helps keep things round. But the here and now of raising kids in the environment at hand changes everything!!
Up until now, I thought my residence in this unusual place was established until my time was up, but it appears the complication gets deeper. There are cities and towns to move to along the way. Baby Town is for newbies who have nothing but their first child at the baby stage. This place is precarious and amazing all at the same time. Every resident of the planet looks back on this time as humorous and new. Once you move to the adolescent stage, possibly even adding another child, you teleport to a whole new surrounding. The same is true with more kids, and even as they age. This I was prepared for. Being booted to the outskirts of the planet now that I am done having kids is the part I was not prepared for. Yes, I am still in a large town. But I am on the edge where baby town moms listen concerning what I have to say and then head back home far away from me to doubt the effectiveness of the difference of children that make my thoughts ring useless to them, whereas the moms who have surpassed my current stage may have moved back to Planet Earth leaving me to my own devices. Wait I haven't hit the teen years yet, Mom's come back...
It is where I see Planet Mom out one window and the real world out the other. Each day I wake up not sure where I belong. Yes, mama never told me there would be days like this... Momma only had me so.....
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