Being a parent is such a hard job. It truly is the hardest, most gut wrenching job I have ever done in my entire life! Ok, so I realize that we all have had a difficult job at one time or another in our lives. Maybe you have a really high stress job, loads of responsibilities, and a number of people that are depending on each and every decision you make. Agreed, that is difficult and can be gut wrenching. But parenting.....now that's a whole different ball game.
That's your child. It's not like in a job where you make a mistake and you might get written up for it. Worst case scenario, they fire you. Yeah, that can pretty much suck. But, make a mistake as a parent and you can sometimes feel as though you've scarred this child for life! I remember fondly when my first child was born. She was laying in my arms, umbilical cord still attached, all naked...and perfect. I remember my husband and I just staring at her completely awe-struck by this little miracle laying in my very tired and very weak arms. First, in all honesty, I was staring at her whole little body thinking "How did she fit in there?" (I did not have little babies) and "Wow! We made that!?" and "Oh crap! She came outa there...not going to even ask what my va-ja-ja looks like after this." But then came this set of overwhelming feelings. Feelings of complete, I felt so complete holding her in my arms. Feelings of responsibility, a responsibility I'd never experienced like this before. Feelings of overwhelming thankfulness. How did I get to be so lucky to have this. And last, but most definitely not least, I looked at this little person that I just met. We only met a minute or two ago, yet I felt something I'd never felt ever before. I knew that without a thought or a question or even a blink of an eye, I would willingly lay my life in front of a moving train if it meant it would save hers. That's being a parent. That's a whole lotta emotion to experience after 9 months cookin' in the oven and 23 1/2 hours of labor. My husband so sweetly kissed me and through the tears in his eyes he said, "Now we're a family". It was such an amazing, unparalleled moment in our lives. I looked up at Gerry with more love than I'd ever experienced with him before and said, "She's perfect. God made her absolutely perfect. ...It's only us that can screw her up now."
And, that's parenting. Every decision, every thought, every discipline, every breathe taken is done with such purpose. Bear with me a minute. See, I love football. And, since it is Super Bowl weekend it's of course on my brain. In football, creating a team to make it to the Super Bowl is very planned out. Each play, each coach, each trainer, each player has to be at the top of their game for a full 18 weeks. They can't just take a slack-off game day and decide not to play. Well...some do...I won't mention any names (Randy Moss) who thinks he can pick and choose when he's going to participate...can't stand that guy. Ok, I digress. Point is they all have to work together, like a well orchestrated machine, working in tandem for the ultimate prize. That's parenting! Each decision is a player, each thought is a coach, each discipline is a play, each breathe is a trainer. And you have to do it every single minute of every single day of every single year for the rest of your life! There are no slack off days being a parent. We don't get to be Randy Moss!
Now, I'm not implying that we are perfect. Heck, there's no football team to make it to the Super Bowl that is perfect either. There are some times that no matter how bad they want it, things don't go their way and they loose a game. Or there is a player that is just completely off their game that day, despite their best efforts, and they get hurt or have to get pulled and the 2nd string comes and fills in. Thank God sometimes for the 2nd string! And that holds true for football and parenting. We don't always hit the mark with decisions we make or disciplines we have to hand down. But come on, you know you agree with me on this one. We all KNOW when we've hit the mark. Yesterday was just that for me.
My daughter, my oldest, came home from school having had an issue in school that brought her to tears. After my Mama Bear Claws came out and I was able to count to 10, calm down, and slowly pull them back inside I had a Prized Mama Moment. Folks, I am not being boastful of myself here. Well, ok, I'm lying. Yes I am! But I'm not ashamed of that and I don't feel I should be. I have plenty of not-so-prized mama moments I gotta celebrate when I really hit the mark. I did something that gave my child comfort, made her feel good, and incorporated our value system all in one little act. I think what impressed me the most was that I thought of it all on my own. My Mom had nothing to do with it and I didn't steal the idea from someone else. That, my friends, is a rarity. And at the end of the day, I felt good. I felt like I did a good mommy job yesterday. It inspired me want to do a good mommy job today, albeit I woke up late and as a result hubby and kiddos missed half of Donuts with Dad at school this morning. But hey, they all made it and it proves once again that I am not perfect. I will never be a perfect mommy. But, I will celebrate when we've won a game and are that much closer to the Super Bowl of Raising Children.
See the thing is, and now you will understand so much about me, I am a Minnesota fan. I love the Twins and I love the Vikings. We're still waiting for a Super Bowl berth for my Vikings but my Twins have shocked the heck out of Major League Baseball and won the World Series a time or two. But more than that I am a parent. I have been given these three amazing kids with the Super Bowl being that at the end of it all they grow to be kind, caring, loving, faithful, happy people and that they can look back when they are parents and realize that we did alright. We made it to the Super Bowl because we helped them to be that! They will raise their children striving for their Super Bowl berth just like we did and the cool thing is they will have the all the tools to do so. And we....we will sit back, spoil their kids and watch them from our rocking chairs on the front porch saying, "well I guess we didn't screw them up soooo bad". We will watch from our armchairs at them striving for their Super Bowl. We will hold hands, rocking in our chairs, smile and think of the old days all while wearing our Super Bowl rings.
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