Nicola

Recently I took a trip down Facebook memory lane.

Presumably I was in procrastination mode, avoiding getting some writing done, or some housework, or perhaps hiding because I just didn’t want to sing a Frozen duet with my six year old again. For the five hundredth time.

As I scrolled through the past six or seven years of my (social media) life, I started to notice two common themes:

One: Wine. I tend to mention relaxing with a glass of wine quite often.

Two: My kids: the things I do for them and the things I let them get away with – all in the name of love – or sanity.

The first one I came across was a post about Piper when she was just 20 months old and had obviously hit the fussy food stage. Apparently one night I went through nine different options for dinner, while she cackled at me and sprinkled cous cous on the floor and shoved peanut butter toast back in my face. For the record, in the end, the answer was porridge.

Then there was the time Maddie developed a sudden, random and one-night-only fear of the bathtub. I climbed in fully clothed in order to comfort her. FYI, jeans get quite heavy when they’re soaking wet. But the silliness of it made her laugh and the irrational fear was immediately forgotten. She had a happy bath time carefully placing bubbles on my face in the shape of a beard.

Next it was our Anniversary celebration. A day for romance. A day for my husband and I to eat take-away Thai and share a bottle of wine after the kids went to bed. A day apparently, for Maddie to hop back up and ask if she could fall asleep in our bed tonight instead. Ahh, how could you say no to that sweet faced, tousle haired, pyjama clad angel? We tucked her up in our bed and returned to the Beef Massaman and the rom-com on the telly. That’s when Maddie realised she actually had a bit of a tummy ache… moments before vomiting all over our pillows. Lovely.

Apparently I also let my children do ‘cooking’ sometimes, in order to alleviate their boredom – I found this status update back when the girls were one and three: “Girls are mixing eggs, water, flour, balsamic glaze, red food colouring, Nutrigrain, salt and pepper.” It was followed almost immediately by the following: “Turns out it’s not a good idea to pour red food colouring directly onto your skin. Huh. Who knew?” Solid parenting right there. I wonder how long their hands stayed stained red?

As I continued to scroll down memory lane (see what I did there?), I reached the night before Maddie’s fifth birthday, when I was so busy planning her party and baking cupcakes for her to take into preschool the next day (via the neighbour’s oven because our own oven had broken that day), that I didn’t realise until late that night that we’d forgotten to buy her any birthday presents. I raced out to K-Mart, tore around with the trolley just before they closed, then came home and we wrapped presents until just after midnight. Thank you late night shopping. Thank you.

There’s so much more madness, Maddie coming to me with a permanent marker and asking me to take off the lid. Me blindly complying. Why? WHY?! Piper hitting two and a half and therefore hitting devil tantrum stage and the rest of us simply accepting the fact that Piper was now in charge. Of the world. Allowing Maddie to ‘do my makeup for me ’ with her face paints. Allowing Piper to choose my outfit for the day. But hey, you do what works to keep your kids happy – even if sometimes it’s a bit crazy or silly.

Even if sometimes you look back at your own Facebook updates and find that you’re shaking your head at yourself.

Because they’re only little for the blink of an eye, so why not have some fun?

What you have done for your kids in the name of love?

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