I’m at the mall trying to find a few cheap summer dresses when I decide to go into Gap Kids. This is one of my few afternoons of total freedom from kids or stress so why I want to go to a kids store is beyond me.
I see the adorable little boy clothes that my boys can no longer fit into. I’m suddenly struck by the realization that my four boys are getting big and that those “young mommy” days are over. When my youngest enters Kindergarten, I’ll be 42 years old. A far cry from the 32 year old moms walking their first-born into the classroom.
While I try to stay fit and fully believe that age is just a number, the reality is that my days with toddlers are over. The anticipation of all of a baby’s firsts with each of my boys is over. We are moving closer to first dates than we are first steps.
The struggle to be an independent woman coupled with managing all the responsibility of motherhood is a challenge I could have never understood before I had kids of my own. Trying to juggle my multiple roles as mother, wife, daughter, businesswoman and friend takes both time and organization that frankly didn’t come naturally to me. As a result, I wasn’t the mom who created beautiful baby books or memorabilia of my children that I thought I might. I realized at some point that it was unrealistic to think I could do everything- so some things had to suffer- as long as they weren’t things I’d regret.
