From time to time I’ll talk to various young couples who are looking forward to the day when they will start a family of their own. They get that dreamy look in their eyes and I can tell they’re imagining how nice it will be when they have a cute, cuddly little baby and then, years later, an adorable well-behaved toddler and so on. I look at these dreamers and laugh to myself, “They have NO IDEA what they’re getting into.
Take this last Saturday evening for example. The kids were in bed and Joshua and I were peacefully doing a few chores downstairs before we were going to settle in to watch a movie. While I was sweeping in the dining room I heard a crash from overhead so I raced up the stairs (as much as a very pregnant woman can race anywhere) to the kids’ room to see what happened. Lily had somehow managed to dive off her bed to tackle the floor lamp, shattering its glass parts to pieces and sending shards of glass flying across the room toward Malachi’s bed (where he was sitting half naked since his favorite pastime is removing his pajamas.) Thankfully, neither child was injured, but we did have to spend the next half hour or so cleaning up glass from all the little nooks and crannies in the kids’ room (and redressing Malachi.)
Now this example of crazy parenthood is from a mother of only TWO kids. What is it going to be like as our home fills up with even more of these little sources of stress and insanity? Do I have any idea what I’m getting into? Of course I don’t and I think that that ignorance is God’s gift to parents. So, I’ll just take what insanity comes my way because I know that even though life here can get crazy our family life is rich and whole because of those little kids. I’m so thankful for my family- broken lamps and all.
1 comment:
Sometimes I wonder if it's a good thing that I am getting real life experience in a house with five children. When I have kids of my own I'll actually know what I'm getting myself into. Just last night after I'd settled into bed I heard someone crying upstairs. It sounded like Samuel when he's sleep-walking. So I go upstairs and find him stumbling around their room trying to get to the bathroom, but in his sleep he can't figure out how to get around the pile of toys in the floor. So I had guide a sleep-walking five year old down the stairs and to the bathroom. I shouldn't know I'm going to have to do these things before I have kids!
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