I saw this comic strip and found it to be first, really funny, and second, really true!
Being a psychology major in college combined with my experience working with people with disabilities, I used to think that I knew a lot about being a parent. I would see mothers in the stores with their screaming children and I would judge them. “My children will never act like that”, I would think to myself. Or, I’d see little kids running around with bare feet on dirty floors with stains on their shirts and runny noses and I’d think “not my kids, never”.
So there I was on Saturday night, sitting in the germ-infested McDonalds playland with two bare-footed, runny-nosed kids with stains on their clothes and messy hair and feeding them greasy chicken nuggets and fries. It occurred to me that I am not the mother that I thought I would be. They have worn me down.
But, I think that every parent must think, “my kids won’t be like that” before they have children, or no one would ever procreate. Don’t get me wrong, I love my children dearly, but OH I’m so tired.
You get to my age and you look back and wish you could do so many things different with your kids. It’s not the stained clothes you regret or the messy hair, it is the missed time with them. It is hard to be a working mother, but you are doing a great job.