My youngest just started Kindergarten, embarking on a new chapter in his childhood. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my children are getting older…fast…and there are so many things I miss. Here are just a few:
- Weekend trips together to wherever I chose, whenever I chose. Now that my oldest has a mind of his own, he can decline a day trip to go strawberry picking, or even to the store if he doesn’t feel like it. If we have some excursion he’ll want to insert a friend, otherwise, he will complain it’s “boring.” When he was 5 years old, there was no argument or trying to convince anyone.
- The cuddling. Now both of my boys are resistant to my smothering cuddles, save for a few fleeting moments. I used to be able to hug them as much as I wanted, and now have to sneak in their bed in the middle of the night for a snuggle. Sniff sniff.
- The total dependence on mom. Kind of a double-edged sword here. Sure, they are more self-reliant now, which means more freedom for me as a mom. Great news, right? Sometimes, not so much.
- The small child activities. I used to love to plan our activities for the weekend. We’d start with an arts and crafts hours at our local Michael’s, a child-friendly building project activity at Home Depot, and maybe a fall festival with a bouncy house. Those days are ending and they can opt for more age-appropriate activities.
As pathetic as it may sound, one of the oddest things I miss is the fact I always had a built-in excuse to not be accountable when it was convenient.
“Sorry, I can’t come to your party because that’s nap time for my little one,” or
“Sorry we are late…it took forever to get the baby ready and he spit up all over his new outfit,” or my personal favorite: “Oh sorry it took me 2 weeks to text you back. You know how it is, with small kids and stuff.”
Now that they can dress themselves and are increasingly self-reliant, all those excuses go out the window – and this mom has had to ‘grow up’ as well to the reality of not having an excuse to not be present.