January is always a month of Promise and Hope. We look to new beginnings in the form of New Year’s resolutions, setting ourselves goals and objectives to achieve over the year. Be it personal or professional, we set these to become accountable for our actions over the next 365 days…or all 31536000 seconds that makes up 2018.
While many set their sights on losing those pesky holiday pounds or getting to the gym more regularly (my hand is firmly up for both of those!), I’ve chosen to be more present. What does that even mean I hear you say? Well without being too morose as we enter another year, the fast pace of life and years rolling by really start to hit home.
There is a wonderful line from the book ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin that goes ‘The days are long, but the years are short’. Having muddled my way through life to my late thirty’s, the reality of how short life is once I had children really started to weigh on my mind.
Given I am a stay at home mom, it may seem strange to want to be more present in our daughter’s life when I spend every waking minute of every day with her, but in those long, long days Gretchen Rubin speaks of, so often our minds are distracted by being on social media or worrying about dinner, laundry, cleaning, paying bills, replying to emails etc that you forget to be present.
The images of a stay at home Mom versus the reality of one is starkly different…you think you have time…oh so.much.time. The reality is your job is not defined by set working hours. A day spent feeding, cleaning up, entertaining, teaching, nurturing, being there for them when they need you, being present.
Recently, my daughter turned one and while in the first few days, weeks and months of having a brand new baby it seemed like you’ll never see the end of every hour filled with a feed, diaper change, clothes change (mostly theirs, sometimes yours) and barely existing on no sleep, when told to enjoy it because it goes all too quickly…you start to wish it did. It’s a tiredness you have never known, especially as many of us have children later in life and the days of pulling all nighters are a long gone memory, but somehow your body adjusts and just keeps going. Hurrah for coffee!
Then little milestones occur…all the ‘firsts’… first smile, laugh, when they start to say mama and dada, crawl, stand, walk, draw their first picture (as ugly as it is, it will always be firmly put on the refrigerator with an utter sense of pride), first Halloween, first Christmas, start school, graduate from school, enter college, leave home…oh stop the clocks! I’m definitely not ready for that! With every little milestone you meet, you want to freeze time and hold onto it forever.
So here’s to 2018, being more present, trying not to parent while having half an eye on social media and making memories to last a life time, both ours and theirs.
Happy New Year!
The Hill Country Mom 