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Posts Tagged ‘laughter’

What I Want My Kids to Remember Most

Posted in WONDER, tagged #mothersday, #whatiwantmykidstoremembermost, laughter on May 11, 2015| 2 Comments »

” … and you laugh so hard you hope they always remember”
Ann Voskamp

Although Mother’s Day is now past, I am still in a maternally reflective mood.

I figure the day after Mother’s Day is the day when I get to start over again. The slate is clean, and I can once again vie for the Mother of the Year Award … of course I will lose it again by nightfall, but here’s dreaming.

Pondering motherhood is different at different stages of life.

When you are not yet a mother, it might scare you to bits, or excite you crazily.

When you are trying to achieve motherhood, it can be all consuming.

When you are pregnant … well, it may scare you to bits, or excite you crazily. Either way, everything looks differently to you.

When your child is born (or placed in your life by adoption), your world is turned up-side-down, and has spun off its axis. The magnitude of responsibility you hold in your arms becomes reality. You think you can never love anyone this much (until you have another child). Every other thing you do in live is less important. You are immediately less important.

Over time, the weight of the responsibility of motherhood can diminish other parts of us. We can get so concerned that they are clean, do their homework, eat their veggies, be kind to all people, and wear clean underwear (everyday), that we become goal focused, and lost out on one of the most important facets of parenting …

laughing together.

When I am cold with the emptiness of life’s breath, I do not want (nor do I expect) my kids to say,

“wasn’t it great that she cooked a variety of vegetables, so that we could each have something we liked?”

NO!

I want them to remember deep, belly laughs. I want them to remember joy. I want them to remember that I could forget my adulthood long enough to giggle in the quiet of church, to joke about putting a full dog poo bag in people’s mailboxes, to have tears of silliness falling from my face, when recalling the ridiculous events of our days.

I want them to remember that I laughed, and that they can remember laughing with me … that they always remember that.

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Childplay Makes us Better

Posted in life, The Kids, WONDER, tagged acceptance, Childhood, Children, cousins, eyes of a child, Friendship, laughter, play, privilege, relationship on August 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As I write this post I am sitting outside, in the shade of the trees behind our house, as the sun is crawling up into the late morning sky.

I am also being entertained by the four individuals in our pool. Their ages are five, eight, almost thirteen 🙂 and fifteen.

Our youngest daughter and son are playing with abandon, with their younger friends. There is no biology shared between them, but their relationship is akin to cousins. The younger pair trailing behind the older, keeping up because they so want to be together, because they so want to do what their older friends do.

They have a relationship that means every greeting and farewell includes a hug. They each get an instant smile on their faces when they see each other. There is total and complete confidence in the love and affection that they have for each other. Together they are like one unit, with no divisions.

The littler ones presence also seems to bring the older ones together in a manner normally unseen in these two VERY normal siblings (aka. fighting, disagreeing, arguing). For all the hours they were together there was none of that ‘normal’ behavior, and I relaxed in my temporary utopia.

The littler girl loves to be paired with the older one, and the littler boy (aka Little Ben) loves to be with the older (Big Ben). That said, they all play together, and when one is missing, their twosome or threesome continue on.

What refreshment they bring to our home and to our day. They provide instant smiles and laughter.

When we see them, I am immediately reminded that the stage of childhood that they are now at (elementary school aged) is completed in our home, and I am immediately satisfied with the return of the joy that their presence brings.

They remind me that washing faces and hands is a must after eating (especially enormous waffles with whipped cream and blueberries). They remind me that half an hour is enough time for any one activity, and don’t try stretching it our too long. They remind me that fights erupt quickly, and are settled and forgotten about just as quickly. They remind me that please and thank you are the most used words in a day. And that when they are with someone they love, their little eyes and hearts and minds are fully attentive to the object of that affection.

This is a privilege, and an honor. To spend time looking at the world through the eyes of children. How much more beautiful, more large, more wonderfilled it is.

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