I love this quote. I’m not entirely sure who it should be attributed to, but it is so true and something that I sometimes need to remind myself. I love my children and our moments with all of my heart. I never knew how much my heart would expand with the birth of each of my children, or how completely amazed I would be as I watched them grow and learn. Motherhood is so much more than I could have ever imagined. Keeping the trite cliches in mind, knowing that it goes by so fast and that one day I am going to miss these early days, knowing the years are short.. well, the days are still sometimes long.

I have been struggling to find that perfect balance so many moms project to the world. We are all expected to be superwoman, right? A few spilled cups? No problem. Another tantrum, another meltdown? Piece of cake. Separating siblings for the umpteenth time over a fifty cent toy that will be lost by dinner? Easy  as it comes.

HAH. This is where I call shenanigans and demand my vacation. There are days when I feel like if I have to wipe up one more drop of milk, I am going to burst into tears (what do you know, another cliche waiting- don’t cry over spilt milk, right?). Or days when I feel that if I say “stop that! Don’t hit your sister! Give that back to your brother! Just STOP” one more time, it’s going to be accompanied by mommy sitting on the floor, head in my hands in utter defeat (today may have been a day like this). There are days when all I can think of is darn my husband, he gets to go to work. Lucky him. I try to take each moment as it comes and sometimes just take a break, but every now and then I daydream about being in an office again..

My day has consisted of nothing but tantrums and bickering. While I prepared dinner to put in the crockpot, I sliced my finger on a can (a pull-tab can nonetheless!). As blood oozed out of my finger and seeped through my mound of paper towels, my toddler daughter is screaming for her juice and my four year old son is yelling “Cool mommy, you’re bleeding!”. Of course, then the phone rings with the fifth telemarketer of the day who somehow slipped past the do not part of the do not call list. Ahh, domestic bliss. June Cleaver I am not.

Now, my mommy guilt demands I count my blessings. Believe me, I do feel incredibly lucky to be able to spend this time with my children, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. I would not trade this for anything in the world. But right now, as one child is zonked out from pure exhaustion and the other is pretending to nap (hey, I’ll take what I can get), I sigh. Yes, the years are short. But boy, can the days be long…

I am linking this up to Shell @ Things I Can’t Say and her great weekly posts about pouring your heart out. Because sometimes, it’s just what you need to do. And this week, I’m pouring out my frustrations.

Photo Credit: Heiko Klingele

Tagged as: Family, kids, Parenting, stay at home mom