That sounds wrong and extremely irresponsible, like you should just let your child go wild. I wouldn’t suggest that, it could all end in tears and a bottle of wine. Always drink responsibly kids. *cheesy grin & thumbs up*
I don’t remember the exact moment I levelled up to adulthood. Was it getting my first job? Moving away from home and going to university? Paying my own way? It has slowly creeped up on me over the last few years. This strange sense that I am growing older and losing my childlike innocence. However, I have to say honestly I am still very much a big kid. My best friend is a plushie called Maggie the sea cow. (Technically my husband is my best friend but he’s just not girly enough for girl talk. Something I’m thankful for 😉 ) A vast array of colourful key-rings dangle from my handbag such as Princess Unikitty and I am drawn to anything shiny! Try as I might to appear like an adult, I will never pass as one of those women you see on the train that has their sh*t together. For example, eating a homemade salad in Tupperware without spilling a single bit down their designer suit. Yep, that will never be me. I will be over here in the corner with my purple unbrushed mane, green Doc Marten’s and patchwork bag nibbling some magic stars while trying to catch a Psyduck. Yep, sophisticated, me.
Growing up doesn’t come with a manual yet we all follow the same rules as we age. We become more sensible and fall into the routine of job, pay bills, sleep and repeat. One minute we are making daisy chains in scruffy pigtails with muddy knees. Then in a single blink we are chained to a desk answering call after call of customer complaints while the office lech is doing his daily mating call at you from across the room. Just fabulous. You find yourself staring at the clock wondering when did life start playing in slow motion and you wanted to fast forward to the end. You ask yourself “When did this become my life?”
Since having children I have found myself sometimes, just sometimes, to be a bit of a fun sucker. No, get your head out of the gutter you filthy minded people. What I mean is I find myself telling my son to, well, basically stop having fun. Bad mother awarded goes to me right here! It’s horrible and I ask myself “When did you stop being fun? Lighten up!” My inner child wants to shake my sorry self and force feed me double chocolate fudge ice cream after playing ‘Jump Around” loudly while I use my bed as a temporary bouncy castle. Ah fun times.
I used to actually be a very, very relaxed and a fun mum but the scare my son put me through by trying to run out into the road sent me full pelt into bubblewrap mode. My son was ok, in fact he found the whole thing highly amusing. I grabbed him just in time but after that we attached him to a set of reins as it was a horrible close call that scared the living sh*t out of me. And if you know our son, he has a nasty habit of just darting ahead or off in his complete own direction without thinking whenever he gets the chance. Ha ha so much fun…
Once I had a spare minute to really think about this, which believe me when you have two lively boys it’s a rare precious gift (that sometimes turns me into Gollum, Precious!) I had an epiphany. I released that I had become less fun because I had become a mother. And when you become a mother you worry. You worry a lot. Are they sleeping enough, are they sleeping too much, what they eat, what they don’t eat, the list is endless. You are entrusted with this beautiful, tiny human that you created and gave birth to and are left to your own devices. Theres no off switch and definitely no restart. Everything changes and you suddenly feel a tonne of pressure to get everything right for your child. Need I mention health visitors and how much of a pain in the butt they can be? No? Thank-you because that will send me off on a rather large tangent and we will be here all day.
So I have decided to stop worrying about the little things in life that don’t really matter. Things like my eldest drawing on the wall (we will call it art and part of the decoration; adds character) or my youngest peeing on the carpet (that’s what febreeze was invented for) and how a small pice of chocolate is not going to make their teeth fall out. Life is to be enjoyed so I am going to start enjoying it more with my little family. Making memories and not being a nag because they want ice cream for breakfast and not fruit. Not everyday granted, there will be some rules, but just for me to relax more. I want to spend more time having fun with my boys and showing them how wonderful life can be. Going for our woodland walks and skipping stones down by the water. Dressing up as our favourite superheroes and fighting crime right in our back garden. Watching their fascinated little faces as they discover more about nature and science. I want to live and be in the moment and to stop stressing about things that are insignificant. I don’t of course delude myself and I know there will be times where I have to say no. Don’t want to be appearing on supernanny anytime soon by letting them run riot. But to just relax a little and let my hair down. I feel that mothers, fathers, parents in general are too strict on themselves and should just take a breather. It’s ok to worry and to stress but take a step back to have fun with your children. They will get dirty yes but then you can give them a bubble bath and pretend to have a bubbly bread. If they are happy, healthy and very much-loved, stop prioritising the washing up (it really can wait) and go play with them. We will regret it if we don’t now. Children grow up far too quickly and we will be left wondering why didn’t we take the chance and just be a child with them. Let me refer to this quote from the awesome film Hook,
Moira Banning: Your children love you, they want to play with you. How long do you think that lasts? Soon Jack might not even want you to come to his games. We have a few special years with our children, when they’re the ones that want us around. After that you’re going to be running after them for a bit of attention. It’s so fast Peter. Just a few years, and it’s over. And you are not being careful. And you are missing it.
So, who’s with me? Have you got your welly boots ready? Good! Because I know a great place for puddle jumping. And after we can have cake with Maggie and sail the seven seas while we look for buried treasure. Arghhhh! That was my pirate impression. Yep, terrible I know. *sticks tongue out*
Hop hop wiggle wiggle.
Bunny’s Pause 