Is there a limit to what I’m willing to do to make my children happy, assuming it’s something I’m able to do? I’m seriously asking, because I haven’t found it yet. Instead, I find myself decorating the entire house for Valentine’s day, when I’m pretty sure I used to hate Valentine’s day and would often wear black in protest. And then when a certain preschooler tells me that we need to decorate MORE, and this should include Elmo and Abby decorations, I find myself hand creating them out of construction paper.
I’ve also ordered a cookie cake, since we’ve taken to celebrating everything with a family party these days anyway. We made it to Friday? Pizza party! Snowing on a Sunday morning? Pancake party! This pandemic may stink, and it’s certainly stolen a lot from us, but I think it’s given us something too. It’s forced us to become closer and to create our happiness inside our home.
Considering the only other place we go is daycare, I’ve also thrown myself into the weekly themed days, which is why you might see my children with rainbow colored hair on any given day, partly because that stuff doesn’t come out easily, and partly because who cares if it makes them happy. You never quite know what you’ll be like as a parent until you’re in the middle of it, but I’ve quickly realized there are somethings I care a lot about (how the siblings treat each other and the sound level in this house being two of them), and a lot of things I don’t.
I feed my kids happy meals as I scroll past family members posting on facebook about how toxic they are. I put whipped cream on carrots, because does it really matter if the carrots get eaten? And I help my kids create elaborate Valentine’s to give all their friends, because they’re so excited they talk about them every single day.
I just hope none of my children ever want an Abby birthday party, because I think she’s creepier than Frazzle.
