Lessons From my Daughter
Today I’m going to get personal. I’m going to talk about being a mom, the guilt that can often go along with that job, but more importantly, precious moments.
If you’re like me, you need a hit of caffeine in the morning before you’re ready to face the world. I like nothing more than sitting for a few minutes when I first get up, quietly and alone, with my cup of coffee and my own thoughts. Whether it’s contemplative or planning out my morning, I just need that tiny bit of me time. To have a moment or two before I have to hit the ground running for the long day I normally have ahead of me.
My daughter, who’s 9, is truly a delight to me. She is one of the most amazing people I know, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my daughter, but she often asks me to wake her up early so WE can sit and have coffee together (decaf and 2 scoops of sugar for her). Which totally infringes on my quiet time.
This means her waking up an hour or so before she has to get up for school, which seems so odd to me when I have to drag my son out of bed in the morning. I mean who wants to get up early when they don’t have too?
She even wakes me up early on the weekends, the days I like to sleep in, so we can spend time together. She always wants to sit with me when I am doing work, and on all those occasions she talks to me incessantly even though she usually promises she won’t bother me (if I’m working). She will often say, “lLet’s just talk mom. What do you want to talk about?” Sometimes it’s enough to make me want to scream. You moms know what I’m talking about. We love our kids, but sometimes we just need a break. I feel selfish when I find myself not wanting to wake her up because I don’t want to give up my alone time.
What I remind myself, when I find myself getting annoyed or thinking I just don’t have time to listen, is how lucky I am to have a daughter who wants to spend so much time with me. Who loves me so much and isn’t afraid to show it. I don’t ever remember asking my mom to wake me up early so we could spend time together. I was one of the kids who just wanted to sleep.
At some point my daughter won’t want to spend every waking moment with me. She’ll want to spend time with her friends and before I know it she will graduate from high school, go to college, fall in love, get married, start a family, and the whole cycle of life will start over again.
I won’t ever be able to get these precious moment back and though sometimes it’s hard to just stop and smell the roses, it’s important to take all the moments with our children possible. Before those moments are gone.
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