I recently read an article called “The Parents are not Alright,” highlighting the many different hats parents everywhere are trying to wear during this unprecedented time, and the impossibility of attempting to do it all.
Yet we try anyway, don’t we? Worrying and second guessing ourselves in the process—should there be more structure, more play? Perhaps we should bake more, craft more, definitely watch less TV. We’re overstretched and overwhelmed, focusing more on what we’re not doing than what we are. And it’s not doing anyone any good.
Because in case you haven’t noticed—the kids are not alright either. Sure, they’re resilient, they “get on with it,” they adjust. But you’d better believe they are struggling too.
They miss their friends, their daily, routines, their therapies. They have words like “quarantine and virus” in their vocabularies now, and an awareness that something big is going on that they don’t fully understand. They are unsettled and sad and scared. And doing a worksheet isn’t going to fix it.
As my daughter was playing in the backyard this afternoon, I could hear the lyrics of a Laurie Berckner song floating up to where I was sitting:
“A hug from my mama, a hug from my mom.
That’s what makes me feel alright
When everything is wrong
It makes me feel good
And it makes me feel strong.
A hug from my mama, a hug from my mom.”
Be still my heart. ❤️
It‘s a solid reminder that I’m this strange unsettling time, your children don’t need you to do it all, they just need you. You are their solid, steady rock in the midst of a confusing, changing landscape. You are their normal in a world that is anything but. You are their mama, and a hug from you can make everything better, even if only for a moment.
This is the curriculum that truly matters.
So breathe, mama. Give yourself some grace. You are showing up every day on the front lines of motherhood and giving them yourself. And that, my friend, is the only thing they truly need.
