The other day I was picking up an endless supply of toys, paper, pencils, books, etc. and I looked down and saw little, tiny paper airplanes. Now, my oldest child LOVES to create and draw with anything. Her newest love is to make paper airplanes in all shapes, sizes and colors. With that comes lots of paper shavings, and supplies. I haven't been the best in teaching/coaching/making any of my kids pick up after themselves, so I usually do it after they go to school or to bed. Well, I looked at these little airplanes after picking up the supplies, and my first thought was, "Will I ever be able to go into my living room and not have crap to pick up?" And then the next thought was, "Yes and it will come all too soon". Then a song "
You're Gonna Miss This" popped into my head. (
Papa Echo forgive me because it is a country song.) The chorus is:
You're gonna miss this,
You're gonna want this back,
You're gonna wish these days,
Hadn't gone by so fast.
These are some good times.
So take a good look around,
You may not know it now,
But you're gonna miss this.
So, here is a list of things I will miss in seven to twelve years. (big sad sigh)
I will miss:
- The shredded paper, toys, pencils, books, necklaces, hair ties, shoes, socks, school papers, notes, more paper, art projects, cardboard tubes made into ANYTHING, more paper, paper and PAPER all around my house except for where it belongs.
- Tucking my kids into bed.
- My kids curling up next to me to watch a movie.
- Requests of ice cream for dinner. (Have I ever said yes? and yet they still ask)
- Teaching them how to read and write their own name.
- Stories of school and friends.
- Playing "airplanes" for the 100th time that week.
- Watching their creativity.
- All the questions.
- Seeing their different personalities develop. And boy is each child different!
- Reading school papers.
I'm sure I could think of a million more reasons and anyone who now has an "empty nest" could add a million more. I guess this post is to say that even though I get frustrated and tired, I know that I'm lucky I get to be a part of their lives for this short amount of time. 18 years is not long at all. Once they go off to college and then on their own, it just won't be the same as now. There will be awesome parts I'm sure, but it will be different. So, I'm just going to remember to enjoy these moments now, because they sure are a lot of fun.
5 comments:
You know, it's funny. I was just trying to convince myself of this same thing a few days ago, because I know that in some ways it's true. There is a closeness we have with our kids now that we won't have later. However, I've never missed my own childhood, and I've never missed my older kids being babies. I guess I'm not a "kid" person. I'm actually looking forward to their teens.
You actually brought tears to my eyes... and we both know thats rare. Makes me sad thinking about it!
Oh and who was just giving me a hard time for having country songs on my blog???
Oh, you should defianatly, just once let them have icecream for dinner. Make sundaes or banana splits... they'll remember it forever.
I know exactly what you mean....my oldest is getting into the "I am too old to be playing with my siblings" and the younger kids are in the "I want to do everything my older siblings do!" My house is a wreck all the time and yet I feel as though I am cleaning all the time! I will definitely miss all the little things when they get to where they don't like their parents anymore! (I hope that never happens!)
You're totally right. This is a great post. Sometimes it seem so hard to get through the day, but really, how lucky are we that we get to spend so much time with them? Very lucky.
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