Soul-Fed Mama: There Will Be Hard Days
My monthly post on Modern Alternative Pregnancy is live this week. I'm sharing a story there that I haven't yet talked about in this space. Read it here.
Last week was a full on-onslaught of toddler tantrums in this house. I was away for a solo trip for the preceding weekend, so we started with an expected level of neediness and slid downhill from there.She also gave up naps this month. This transition has been hard for both of us.I don’t know what to do with her all afternoon without down time, and she doesn’t know how to deal with life when she is tired, but not tired enough to sleep. She was afraid I was going to leave again, and I was wishing I could.The crescendo was on Wednesday. I picked her up from daycare and she melted down before we even left the property. I was planning to take her to a tumbling class, but I had an hour to kill. I thought we could pick up her glasses that had been repaired, because the shop was near her class, but the 2-block walk triggered another meltdown when she refused to hold my hand crossing a busy street and I had to scoop her up and carry her. She made it through class with only a minor scuffle between us in the middle, but then flat out refused to get back in the car. During that struggle she bit my arm.Up to that point I had been dealing pretty well. I was pulling out every single positive discipline trick I knew or had ever read. I was frustrated and exasperated, but keeping my cool. I was not yelling.But then she bit me. I yelled. And she cried. I felt awful. And angry.It was at that point that I fell back on the nugget of faith that gets me through the very worst parenting days: This day will end. Tomorrow will be better.[Tweet "In parenting, there will be hard days. Very hard days. But rarely will they be in a row."]I gritted my teeth and kissed her sweaty angry forehead and told her I loved her so very much. Then I got in the driver’s seat and drove home with the stereo turned up to drown out her chorus of “No, Mama!”I wish I could tell you that the day got better from there, but it didn’t. But when we woke up the next day she was refreshed and happier and that day was better. And the day after that was better, too.If you are having a hard day today, trust that it will pass. Trust that tomorrow will be better. Maybe even the next hour will be better.Measure your life in the good days, not the hard ones. Even though they stand out, they are few.Live in the good days.How do you get through the hard days?