Family Life

We were at a baby shower this afternoon, for a young couple in our church celebrating their first child. I overheard the new mother commenting how she’d had to hold the baby for an hour last night, just to get her off to sleep, and how much she’d enjoyed the quiet time, baby and her. I chuckled to myself. Ah! Those were the days!

I remembered back to when we only had one small baby, how when that baby was asleep it was truly quiet, and how we really did enjoy quiet times holding the baby. The baby was new & shiny, and we loved playing with him, getting to know him, learning how to be parents.

When we had one child we (his parents) were ahead of the curve. Then we had a second child and we drew even. Now we have three and we’ve fallen behind. It seems like we’re always running to catch up, but never quite making it. And so we look back with fond nostalgia at those idyllic days when we had all the time in the world to savour our only child.

Don’t get me wrong: I love all my children and I enjoy spending time with them. I find it very fulfilling to be a parent. But at the same time they are very demanding of my time and energy. They tire me out, physically and emotionally. Once they’re in high school no doubt I’ll be mentally weary as well.

But for a little while this afternoon I remembered what it was like to parent with joy and peace.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 8:32 pm. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.