When it comes to this job of parenting, I so know the importance of being present. Being present in the hey I see you and hear you way. But also being present in the oh my goodness time is passing so quickly where did my babies go way. There are however times when I see value in peeking just a little bit into the future.
Olympic hockey has taken over in our household, for three out of the four of us anyway. The games are on earlier then my son would wake on his own. He has asked to be woken up each morning the Canadian team has been playing. Since he was born I always applied the “never wake a sleeping baby” rule cause bodies know best when they are tired and ready to be awake. As he so wisely explained though ” umm mom we are hockey fans and we need to support our country.”
Now with the gold cup game on the horizon at 4:00 am, I am looking to the future. The future story about all of us waking up or staying up until 4:00 am to watch a hockey game together. Perhaps the results of the game will make their way into the story, mostly though it will be a story of that time when.
It can be easy to get caught in the details of living together. The routines that hold it all in place. The systems that make it possible to keep the flow moving throughout the house. This though is also where I think it most important to take that sneak peek into the future. Where I can glimpse my children recounting their childhoods to their children, or friends or heck just back to us as their aging parents. And I imagine what I want to hear replayed.
No one is going to be going on about how well I washed the dishes, or how many loads of laundry I picked up off of every floor in the house. Or heck even how much they slept or ate in the passing days. They will be recounting the moments that stood out. The journeys we went on. The times they were supported and surrounded with happiness. None of that rolls out of rules and punishment. The magic making of a childhood rolls out of the ordinary moments made extraordinary by the YES that surrounds them. And from the little extra bits of comfort that show up when the heart breaking, that is inevitable, unfolds.
In these future peeking moments, I am reminded that this journey of living alongside childhoods is setting a future. A future of stories handed from person to person. That tell the tales of how they came to be the adults they are. And my role, is to be the constant yes saying, laugh making, tear catching, soft landing, arms wide open, joy seeing, behind the scenes, I got your back character.
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