My first Mother’s Day with a child taller than I am makes me feel a bit wistful. Where is my baby boy? My son, age 11, is now taller than I am. When he starts talking about rocket science, I have a hard time following what he is saying.
My daughter is not far behind him, either. She will probably not grow as tall as he will, but she will certainly get to be taller than I am. I certainly hope so. It should not be that hard any way. I am barely five feet tall.
In the words of Prince William, parenting is the Sleep Deprivation Society. At least, it is in the first decade. Then you start to not sleep for other reasons. The thing is, I used to have sleep problems before, too. Anxiety and worrying can happen to non-parents, as well.
But having three children under six, as Prince William does, must be exhausting. So I understand where he comes from.
For those of us who have managed to cross that line of the first 10 years of parenting, things are a bit easier. Older children sleep in and homeschooling allows for that. These days, I do not know if I should let them sleep in as long as they can or if I should wake them up by 8am. The thing is, they need their sleep.
And even though we send them to bed around 8:30pm, they do not always manage to fall asleep before 9:30 or later. They tell me this the next day.
Google does not usually promote traditional family values, but they tugged at my heart with their Mother’s Day video this year. Mothering is, indeed, the role of a lifetime.