While I exhale, I miss the gentle smiles of empathy from fellow weary travelers on this parenting road. I miss the community acknowledgment of the passage of time, no matter how short, no matter how small an accomplishment may seem.
Since, truly, I knew that my role, the one that I’d been anticipating all these years, was just starting. Now, we got to raise our girls.
As we progress through each step of childhood, I’ve found that every moment I think I’ve reached a finish line, or at least made it one step closer, I’m startled to discover that someone has moved it. The needs I thought I could anticipate, I didn’t. The moments where I felt prepared, I wasn’t. The frustration mounts to the point where I can’t seem to catch a break, no matter how hard I try.
As we were packing for a trip to Disney World last month, I had that constant feeling of being unsettled, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. The day we left, it finally clicked. My husband called me, attempting to pack up one car while I sat in the carpool line to get … [Read more…]