Remember to Relax

Picking one word to focus on for 2016 is all the rage right now.  Which is great because I've never been one for resolutions.

As I started thinking about my "word" for this new year, I knew it had to be centered around my children.  At 1- and 3-years old, they are more difficult now than ever before.  They both whine.  They fight.  They pester each other.  They deliberately disobey.  The dump containers of toys just to dump containers of toys.  They're messy.  They're sloppy.  They're needy.  And at any given time, there are no fewer than 18 balls, 29 army men, 24 puzzle pieces, and 49 matchbox bars scattering our floors.  For me, this current stage of parenting has been the most challenging.  I find myself cringing over their choices and frustrated with their actions more often than not.  I become stressed easily and roll my eyes whenever there's "another mess" to clean.  

But then I remember, they. are. boys.  And young ones at that.  It's in their nature.  They're learning.  And discovering.  And playing.  Which is all I could hope for at this age.

I knew I needed a word to help me cope with this crazy stage of their lives and mine.  I tossed around the words calm, embrace {the craziness}, peace, and appreciate.  But none of them seemed quite right.  Instead, I just kept coming back to this one, short, five-letter word.

Relax.


I definitely don't mean relax in the sense of messages every other week or a trip to the beach.  (Although, wouldn't that be nice?!)  Instead, I want to relax my nerves and relax my expectations when it comes to my kids.  In a sense, I simply want to let them be kids.

Merriam Webster defines the word as follows:

: to become less severe or strict

: to become calm and free from stress

: to seek enjoyment

That is the kind of relax I'm talking about.
 


It's not going to be easy for me.  It's hard to relax when two little ones are fighting over the same darn bouncy ball fives time per day...especially when we have seven others that are identical.  It's hard to relax when driving down the interstate at 75mph and Brantley is whining about a dropped toy.  It's hard to relax when Holden shoves his plate of food onto the floor...for the second time that week.  It's hard to relax when there are toys scattered all across the kitchen, living room, and dining room floors.  It's hard to relax in this day and age period, and it's especially hard to relax with two young boys only 21 months apart.

Just last night, I saw on Facebook a statistic that really struck a chord.  Parents have only 936 weeks between a child's birth and graduation.  I'm already approximately 182 (Brantley) and 46 (Holden) weeks deep in that time frame.  Does it really matter if they're fighting over a bouncy ball?  Is it worth stressing when there are toys cluttering our floors?  Is it too much of a hassle to clean yet another mess?  No.  The answer is no.  And that is why I'm focusing on the word relax.

It may not be easy for this type-A, control freak of a mama, but I'm going to do my best.  Because that's what "resolutions" are all about, right? 

9 comments:

  1. Love this word and can do the same! My littles are 1 and 3 and it's absolutely exhausting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great word!!! I need to relax more as well. I feel so stressed that I have SO many things to do and definitely not enough time to do them. I'm going to need to try to do this more this year too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you! I needed this read this morning! My little guy is 3 and is definitely all of the above! I have found myself getting so frustrated with him this week and at the end of the day that breaks my heart. I don't want to look back on these years and remember that. The days are long but the years are definitely short. I'm putting relax on the top of my to do list right now!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you! I needed this read this morning! My little guy is 3 and is definitely all of the above! I have found myself getting so frustrated with him this week and at the end of the day that breaks my heart. I don't want to look back on these years and remember that. The days are long but the years are definitely short. I'm putting relax on the top of my to do list right now!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amen to all of this!! Scott is constantly telling me to relax. Such a great word choice. I hope 2016 is great for you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great word and great resolution! I'm more Type A than anyone I can imagine (besides my own mother). I wonder how much I'll be able to relax and let things slide when I have kids of my own to clean up after. Ah!!

    Staci
    www.missbloodymary.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. YES!! I'm right there with you! I spend so much of my day stressed about what Wyatt and Stella are doing...wrong. When in reality they're not doing anything wrong. Thank you for writing this today.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Every mom can relate to this! My 18 month old is going through a crazy exploring stage and its enough to make me want to pull out my hair ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good post. I feel like RELAX could apply to my word of the year too.

    ReplyDelete