Nothing lasts forever.

You need to remind yourself of this when you are up at 2, 3, 4, 5 a.m. with a crying newborn or a baby that has an ear infection.

You also should think about it when you have “terrible toddlers” who want to say “No!” to everything and throw occasional screaming-on-the-floor temper tantrums and throughout the elementary school years when they are beginning to establish themselves as unique individuals and don’t always believe something is true just because you said it.

When your son or daughter enters the uncertain time of junior high, and the breaking away period that is known as high school, remember that this will too pass.  As traumatic as these years may seem, if you can remind yourself, “It’s not going to last forever…”, it helps to give it a little perspective.

While I’m on the subject, this also applies to those times when your tiny one is asleep on your chest and you have a house that needs cleaning…

My favorite poem when my children were babies was this:

  Cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow,                                                                                                                                                 For babies grow up, we’ve learned to our sorrow.                                                                                                                                                   So, quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep–                                                                                                                                                            I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep!

I embroidered a sampler with this on it and hung it where I could see it as a reminder of what’s important.  Was my house spotless?  Nope!  Did laundry always get done on schedule? Hardly ever.  Did we eat off of paper plates so that I didn’t have as many dishes to wash? You betcha! I don’t regret a single minute that I spent holding my babies in my arms, singing and rocking while they slept.

My house is cleaner now, but it’s also empty and so are my arms (except when my grandbabies come to visit!)

Remember that it doesn’t last forever when you are the 911 for any injuries, hurt feelings or other traumas that are endured during childhood.  These days are, in fact, so fleeting that if you don’t take time to consciously note them, they are gone and you’re left standing there wishing for some of it back…

To wrap all this up, I encourage you to be nurturing and steady for your children.  There needs to be someone who won’t fall apart over the things that soon will pass and you’re it!