In my opinion...and I have a lot of them...there are things that are viewed in such a skewed way. Now, this is my opinion, and while I may be irritated, I'm not suggesting that I have all the right answers and those who irritate me are wrong. I saw a quote the other day that said, "Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience, you are raising a human being." So true, so true! In that very same day, I saw a TV advertisement for artificial birth control that depicted a young stay-at-home mom chasing her very energetic toddler around the house from one mess to the next, and while she didn't get mad, she was tired. I wondered where the ad was going, as I chuckled about how true and normal this mom's day is for almost all moms of toddlers. By the end of the ad, the mom smiled at the next mess and the commercial revealed it's push...birth control. It hit me so wrong at that moment, because it presented a simple solution for a "problem". Like...why would you want to have more than one little monster if you didn't have to? Oh, I know, it wasn't meant to portray children as a problem that needs fixed, but isn't that what is happening more and more every day in our country?
I won't go any farther in my political dissatisfaction, but those two separate things really got me thinking, especially as I have a "sick" child at home today from school. He is one of my more energetic and imaginative children and despite vomitting all through the wee hours of the morning, and not feeling great for most of the morning, the summer weather that we're having right now makes it difficult for anyone to sit still. If I was sure he was not going to throw up again, I would surely take him back to school. AGAIN...I feel it necessary to add that I am not one of those parents who happily sends my children to school so I don't have to deal with them, however, this is a change to our routine in the middle of the week, and I have certainly been doing a lot of following, chasing and cleaning up.
The idea of inconvenience popped into my head as I was cleaning out my refrigerator. How does something get sooo dirty in so little time?? If only containers could have the proper lids, if food could be stored in proper containers, if cartons could get wiped off before being placed on a shelf...if spills could get wiped up rather than just covered up...it would be so much more convenient. Same with the sand in the bathtub and under my feet since the 80 weather has beckoned kids back out to the sandbox...and the shoes that somehow never find their proper resting place, or towels that lie in a wet heap on the floor, or...the list is rather endless. None of it is convenient. I would truly love to live in a quiet, clean, well-organized home, but not enough to erase my current life.
Every day of my life is full. Not just full of life, but full of stuff...schedules, messes, melt-downs. I would be lying if I tried to pretend that every moment of every day is blissful. That the result of every "incovenience" is a smile and sigh that says, "This is exactly how it is supposed to be and I am so very happy about it." I must be careful who I "vent" to that I am overwhelmed with the energy, or behavior or attitude or challenge. It is funny how if a mom of two is ready to pull her hair out, it is just a normal part of parenting, but if a mom of seven (or four, five, twelve, etc) is ready to pull her hair out, she probably should have thought about that before having so many children and it wouldn't be this hard if you didn't have so many. (Not my words, just repeating what I've heard!) Children are not inconveniences...what they do sometimes is.
