Never Say Never

I came across blogger Amy Morrison's post, "When I have kids I will never..." and I had to both laugh and smirk with vindication at her ten retractions now that she is a mother.

Morrison addresses the "nevers" that she proclaimed as a single woman she would never do once she had kids.  Looking at overwhelmed mothers with their hands full, she was clear on how things would be different for her.  This seems to be such a common frame of mind and I wonder if it is part of our self-defense mechanism mixed with a bit of self-denial, which allows us to enter into the crazy world of parenting in the first place!  After all, if we were all painfully aware of how going without sleep effected us after years at a time, how easily we could become manipulated in order to get some peace, how impossible it is to keep up with housework and one's own appearance, we may never have given parenting a chance at all.  Therefore, there remains that glimmer of hope that our children will be "different" and that our superior parenting skills will warrant all seven Von Trapp children to come running to the sound of our whistle.  

Morrison addresses kids sleeping with her, eating what they are fed, ignoring her kids, taking her kids to the park, taking her kids swimming, eating crap, watching TV, looking half decent, keeping her cool, and letting her kids become her whole life."   

Thankfully we ride that glimmer of hope that things will be different for us when we enter into parenthood and then laugh with the veterans at the things we said on the other side, because this journey is by far worth it and beautifully humbles the person we were before.