January Day Twenty Four

And as quick as the midwife says “you have another daughter”, I have two daughters in high school. Ok, well maybe not that quick, but too darn quick. I had one of those Facebook reminders pop up and tell me that six years ago, I was dropping my youngest off to Prep and now here I am, with both out of primary school. I literally struggle to believe it, and always reflect on the saying about the days being long and the years being short. This is so true and whenever I see babies and toddlers, and friend’s children heading off to kindy and prep, I caught in a deep pit of nostalgia, which is of equal measure happy and sad.

My youngest daughter had her own dose of nostalgia after her second day of high school, she’s been at the same school as her dad and going to school with him for the past 6 years {and her big sister for 3 years of those years} and the reality of this no longer being her reality set in. She wants to stay young and be little kid again without all the pressure of being a big kid. {insert the mother guilt setting in when she told me that}

The first day of school is so exciting and often comes without the tired worn out pain that eventuates later in the term and in the year. Uniforms are put on with gusto, breakfasts eaten, hair done with not a strand out of place and bags are packed 45 minutes before we need to be scurrying out the door. They are buzzing around like little worker bees and I potter about, turning on  my coffee machine,  dreaming about how amazing it would be if it was like this every morning. On a more “normal” morning my coffee machine can’t heat up fast enough to bring me a little respite to the morning grind.

So off they went as happy as pigs in mud, full of little piggy hopes and dreams, and happily I drove over to my beautiful friends house to have a three hour long uninterrupted conversation…and of course a coffee.

I talked about that crazy parental feeling that is one complete feeling made up of a mix of love, gratitude, frustration and  parent-guilt. Realising that this mix of mooshed up love and frustration  is what parenting children is all about helps us to accept and understand that we are all doing our best.

Soon our little people will be big people, however we handle the nostalgia, the long hard mornings or the easy mornings. So I’m going to try and make the most of all of the moments and take them all in knowing they that are all a part of the ride.

Happy First Day

Jess x