When your children are young, time seems to move at a snail’s pace.
When you’re rocking a crying baby, trying to cajole an obstinate toddler, or trying to figure out what to feed your picky child, parenthood feels like a long, unending tunnel. Yet, everyone who has been through the tunnel and survived tells you: “Don’t blink, it goes so fast.” Guess what, they were right.
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Now, my crying babies, cranky toddlers, and picky little girls are all grown up. Well, almost. I can look at them in the backseat of my car tuning out the world with their headphones and just briefly close my eyes to imagine their tiny faces with a pacifier or a sippy cup in their mouths.
The trick is that for the most part parenting memories are a one-way street. I remember them that way—but they don’t remember being that young, or, for that matter, me being that young.
Now, time moves too quickly, from one grade to the next, from driving, to SATs, to boyfriends and college. It’s all a blur. I don’t want to stop it, I just want to slow it down a little bit.
Intellectually, I know that’s not possible, especially given our hurry-up culture that keeps everyone on a treadmill 24/7. So, short of slowing down the pace of everything, my goal is to slow down the pace of certain moments with my girls, to savor them, not just push through to the next big thing.
These days, I’m the one telling all the young mothers in my life to “not to blink.” They look at me with wariness as they wrangle a busy toddler at their feet or soothe a fussy baby on their shoulder. I’m sure, like I did, they feel like these frenzied days of parenting will go on forever. They won’t. Believe me.
For the next two years until my youngest daughter goes to college, I plan on not blinking …
Amanda is the mom of two, a reporter for WRAL-TV and the author of several books including some on motherhood. Find her here on Mondays.