~18 Summers…..

Lindsay’s Tea Party has a tribe of Mommy Bloggers that follow one another throughout each of our daily lives by reading and subscribing to one another’s personal blogs. From time to time, a post will strike a cord with you that no other person will relate to you in this same way and when this happens, the connection, the camaraderie that is felt, the words instantly bring life to a personal situation or circumstance that now you feel encouraged and reminded that you are not alone in this big world after all. In hopes to strike a cord with even just one of you, I decided to share this next story with you of a recent experience of mine.

Recently, I was making a purchase for my youngest daughter’s birthday which is coming up soon. I shopped online looking for exactly what she had dreaming of, checked prices, sizes, etc to find just the right fit… As I entered one of the sites homepages, I saw this quote on the opening page of the product I was looking for. It read something like this. “Get yours today, because you only have 18 Summers with your kids!” I stopped immediately and paused as I read this, did it just say, hurry up and buy this product because you only have 18 Summers with your kids?

I immediately did the math in my head of my 3 children’s ages and how many Summers I had left with each child. Sitting at my desk in silence, I felt heavy laiden, I felt like I have a very finite and a very limited number of Summers left with each of my children. It left me with a very emotional response. It made me sit and think for a minute, were my kids Summer vacations fun? Did we savor every minute? Did we spend each Summer soaking up every last bit of fun? Did we realize that with each Summer that passes we are notching another one off the list? It made me gulp, hard to swallow..

For the rest of the day, I felt like this really is a bigger lesson for me personally… Yes, I want my children to make amazing and fun Summer memories, but even more,  do I pause to notice that each day that passes, each month that passes, every year that passes, is all gaining close to the day that my child will no longer be a child and will enter adulthood, go off to college, start a successful career, even MOVE OUT of our home!? Do I realize that this is happening before my very eyes, with each school day, with each baseball practice, with each dance lesson, it’s one less practice to shuttle him or her to before there will be none to remain??

With the day-to-day busyness of youth sports, dance & music lessons, homework, book reports and after school functions, it’s easy to lose sight of how little time we actually get to be just “parents” to our children and utilize “free time” with our children.

It’s just a blink of an eye, a blip in our life that our little one’s get to reside in our homes, sleep in their bedrooms and awake needing rides to school, lunches made and backpacks loaded up. Before we know it, they will be gone, our 18th Summer together will come and go and what will that 19th Summer look like?

Well for now, I have no idea what that 19th Summer will look like, and I am okay with that. I’ve decided to pause each morning as I make 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and help get 3 little one’s off to school…. In this pause I hope to remember how blessed I am to have all 3 of my children together under one roof for this short time, to remember that each point in life for each them is a phase, a chapter, as they move forward in life. Rather than be sad, I’ve decided to embrace these tender moments, cherish them, try my hardest to remember these fleeting days and feel so thankful for each memory along the way. Because one day, these memories will be all we have to look back upon.

Hug your children a little tighter each morning before they leave, stop and notice their facial expressions, remember how they felt, what they said and what it was like to be their parent in this very moment of life.

We only get this one life, one opportunity to raise our children before it will be time to recount all the days we spent together of the past. Make every one of your Summers together count! In fact, make each day count, knowing you will never regret taking this time to savor those moments now!

~Lindsay

 

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