"I Don't Have Time For This!"

Hopefully when my kids are all grown up and having children of their own they won’t remember that their own mother quite often proclaimed, “I don’t have time for this!” This phrase seems to leave my mouth more frequently than I would like it to, especially when I am faced with inconvenient dirty diapers to change and endless questions my children want immediately answered all while I am trying to rush around and get other more “important” things accomplished.

Motherhood wasn’t accidental for me. Motherhood is something I chose to do, in fact I endured some emotionally painful and agonizing years while I waited for this role to come upon me. To me motherhood is fulfilling. Every day I am extremely grateful for this noble calling I have been given, even it if seems like most days by the time late afternoon hits I am functioning at my wit’s end.

I have found one of the keys to successful motherhood is learning how to enjoy serving the little ones that earned me the title of mother in the first place. It’s about learning how to not let every day life get in the way of teaching, inspiring, encouraging and loving these precious souls that have been sent to us.

Jordan of MamaBlogga captured this philosophy perfectly:

“Motherhood is not, at its heart, about getting things done. To be sure, there are a lot of things that mother needs—or thinks she needs—to get done. Meal preparation, homework assistance, chauffeur service, vacuuming, and dishes—not to mention employment, a necessity for many mothers—absorb so much of a mother’s time that it’s very easy to let getting stuff done preoccupy our thoughts, our plans and our lives.

Preoccupy is the perfect word here. Our thoughts and our schedules are pre-occupied—they’re already filled And what are they filled with? So often, it’s just so much minutiae. …

Motherhood isn’t about getting it all done. There are no gold stars for keeping your floors spotless and your sink dish-free. A pristine home; a socially-, athletically-, and musically-active child; a four-course gourmet meal,—even a productive career—are all good things. But they shouldn’t be the sum total of motherhood, or even, ideally, the bulk of it.

Motherhood is not, at its heart, about doing. Motherhood is about being. Because motherhood isn’t just something you do; it’s who you are.”

With all this in mind then, my new habit is going to be learning how to enjoy being a mother. In other words I want to learn how to focus more on the ones who made this dream a reality for me (not exclusively, though … I still have a husband who helped get these kids here). This means I need to learn how to simplify and slow down while I am interacting with my children. This means I will probably need to let some other things go so I can create the time to be the type of mother I want to be. Saying “no” to others might have to occur more often so I can say “yes” more frequently to my children.

After all, I know I don’t want to be the mother who was always too busy rushing around and then frantically exclaiming to her children in need of her attention, “I don’t have time for this!”

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This post was written as part of Mammablogga’s September Group Writing Project. It was also submitted to Scribbit’s Write-Away Contest.

One last thing, don’t forget to enter my Chicco Stroller giveaway!

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