I am on vacation. It is day two on the beach. And my incredible little girl presented me with the gift of a lifetime. I was hanging out in the waves and she was running, playing and creating in the sand. I often find her lost in her imagination, talking with herself, and building elaborate stories. So, today I assumed she was scripting a play all her own. An hour later, she came to the water’s edge and said, “Mom, come see what I made.”
This is what she presented to me.
There is no greater gift than knowing your child is happy.
SHARE THIS: 
And I’m the one that can’t stop crying. Every day this week has had at least one event in it that is a “last” for either my son, me or our family. He’s not just leaving his friends, I’m leaving my friends. These are men and women – all parents! – that were standing there with me 11 years ago when we sent our 3-year-olds into what seemed like a huge adventure.
Could someone please explain to me why Mother’s Day is in May? You know, that delightful month when every mother wants to rip her ever-loving hair out of her head and who mumbles as she falls into bed each night, “How many days until summer break?”
Instead, I am a mother of one little girl, one dog, and one store that I co-parent with my sister. And my life works…most days.
After surviving weeks of work, parenting, some family needs, and personal strain, I marched into Art Fair weekend in Brookside this past Friday with a smile on my face – and bags under my eyes.
I was off to work. Sloane and I are deeply committed to both AIDS Walk and our store, and it was Art Fair weekend in Brookside, darn it. We had to divide and conquer and be both places at once.
So, while Sloane and Mom had my offspring and I was at work, it managed to get super-duper fab-u-lous-ly busy. By the time my daughter came to me after the Walk, I was turning in circles while we shuffled her suitcases and clothes to get her ready for her next big adventure – an overnight! On Sunday, she was joyful at the Paul Mesner Puppets with my mother’s girlfriend – season tickets must be used! – and played with them until I could get off work finally at 6:30 pm.
We two immediately hit Bo Ling’s to celebrate surviving the weekend and to spend some quality time together without me having to cook or clean. (I love their quiet booths at times like this.) We did it! We survived the past few weeks and the endless weekend…and it wasn’t too bad. Actually, it was pretty normal for most working families with kids.
We also have to rally as a family for me to go to Texas with my dad and stepmom to meet with a doctor at MD Anderson because last month my dad was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Sloane and I both know we are not not much different from every other mother we know. We are all crazy-busy, we are all juggling too many balls in the air, we are all confused, tired, stressed, and a bit slap happy. And we sometimes find some balance in sharing our collective craziness. The week I laid out for you is so similar to countless mothers’ weeks that, frankly, I know I am not special or unique.
I can only speak of the young man I’m living with right now. Well, I can only speak of all three of him.
I am blessed with a beautiful daughter.
I was very, very, very lucky to take to motherhood so easily. Don’t get me wrong – I was sleep-deprived, questioning, reading and learning like every new mom. But for me it just felt comfortable…deep in my core. I had never felt that way before. Every other challenge in my life had always come with sweaty hands, sleepless nights and anxiety. Motherhood for me did not.
Less than a year later, my marriage incinerated and I became a single mother. And, even though I was grieving deeply at the loss of my marriage, I never missed a beat with mothering. How to parent alone was never a worry. How to live, finance our life and plan alone was a different story.
