Why Adventures in Parenting

My life is inundated with children and their individual crisis’, with cooking, cleaning, laundry, class time, homework (the kid’s and mine) -- and somewhere in the midst of the going there is supposed to be some stopping--in the form of sleep. I often have the following lyrics by Alabama going through my head:

I’m in a hurry to get things done.
I rush and rush until life’s no fun.
All I really gotta do is live and die.
I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.

The truth is I know why I am in a hurry and I have much more to do that just live and die. I have four children who need me to guide them through life. They all need a piece of me at times separately and at times at the same time. In essence I am living multiple lives--my own is intertwined with four children and a husband. My life is not my own.

I often wonder what I have to offer. I am not so naïve as to think that I am the only mother to feel the push and pull of the lives I have chosen. All mothers, at one point or another, need to know that they are not alone. We need to compare notes and be reassured that most of the things we combat each day are a “normal” part of life as parents. This belief helps us to carry on and push forward through the endless diapers, dishes, clothing, and sibling spats. And so . . . I offer my joys, frustrations, embarrassments, and epiphanies to the world of cyberspace.