I still vividly remember being a brand new mom and people saying...
JUST WAIT
until your tiny newborn baby (that I actually waited very long for), won’t fit on your chest and is running around wrecking your house.
JUST WAIT
until she starts teething and is keeping you up all night.
JUST WAIT
until that sweet little girl who is obsessed with you becomes a teenager and wants nothing to do with you anymore.
These comments hurt. Why do we say them?
They invalidate and take away from the magic I feel every damn day I get to be with this girl. Can’t I just enjoy this? Why would I “just wait” for anything? What does that even mean? The word “just” is a tiny, little, insignificant word thats main purpose is to minimize. The waiting I experienced to become a mother was anything but minimal.
Waiting is not tiny, or simple. Waiting is hard! Can you please “just” tell me that this season of motherhood is amazing and to hold on as long as I can, but that the future is amazing too? Tell me you miss these days. I KNOW YOU DO! Because I already miss them and they aren’t even gone.
We are so quick to tell loved ones that something in the future is harder, worse, better etc. than what is currently happening. Yet, validation and empathy are the most important things we can give to someone we love. As someone who waited 8 long years to be a mom, I want nothing but to slow down time. I want to freeze ALL the moments, especially this one.
She is currently obsessed with me. She cries and yells MAMA when I leave the room. She is teething and running around wrecking my house, one crayon at a time. I never sit down, I am always chasing her - at home, at the park, at restaurants, at airports…
She’s a big girl now, yet still fits on my chest - her favorite place to be, and mine too. On a recent trip, she slept on my chest for two nights in a row. I got a total of 2 hrs of sleep, and I LOVED it. So no, I will not JUST wait for anything, this is EXACTLY what I waited so long for - the drool, the messy, the tears, the tired.
I. Am. Done. Waiting
