Over at Corporate Mommy's, I read an interesting statement. She said "Our life is my son's memories, yet to be." Have you visited her yet? Powerful woman, that one.
I really like that thought. My life is my child's memories, yet to be. What I do today seems so fleeting, and unimportant to me. But when the Terror's look back, and remember their childhood, this is what they will see.
We try so hard to "make" memories. Kids get taken all over the globe, experience new and exciting things all the time, yet remember only things like "I had pink roller skates when I was 6". Will my kids remember the big events, the expensive trips, the birthday parties? Or will they remember me yelling at them to clean up, stop goofing off, or the best, yelling at them for yelling? I hope they look back and say "remember when we all went swimming, and Daddy and I went on the slide?" or "Remember when I snuggled you in bed, and you laughed at my cold toes?" I want them to be the one in their group of friends to say "My parents were boring. Just normal, you know?" when all the rest of the group is telling horror stories about growing up.
From the happy parts of my childhood, I remember a pair of red shoes. I remember sliding down a hill in the backyard in a cardboard box with my sister, over and over. I remember the whole family hauling in wood, together in the misery. I know we went to Disney World once, but I don't remember much about it. I do remember the day we all went to the U-Pick and picked strawberries. I'm sure on the family trip to Florida we did and saw a lot of things, but mainly I remember singing in the car on the way down.
My life is my child's memories, yet to be. May they be good ones, filled with laughter and love.
3 comments:
I took a granddaughter out picking berries one time. She got a little basket and headed off. Pretty soon she's back as happy as a clam: She has the box full -- of still-green berries. So proud, I couldn't bear to tell her.
To me it sounds like you're on the right track. If you snuggle with your kids and laugh at cold toes, it's obvious your a 'mom' and not just a 'parent'.
It's the cold toes and snuggles, and days doing crafts and baking together that build memories.
To my 18 & 16 year old girls, their memories always seem to be, "Remember when Papa and us did this.... or "It was fun when we...."
Echoing Carol, I can say that despite my many regrets about their childhood, my kids ages 24, 20 and 18 remember a lot more of the good stuff than the bad. I think memories are kind to us that way sometimes.
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