Let's hug our kids tighter when they're at their worst.
You know those moments in motherhood that are just pure bliss? They’re the moments when Ava is lying in the bed in the morning and she puts her little nose up against mine and just looks straight into my eyes. They’re the moments when she hugs me out of nowhere and squeezes me oh-so-tight. They’re the moments when everything is just so perfect and everything in life is just so content.
Oh those moments are truly the best.
But what happens when your kids are throwing a tantrum?
Me? I usually get frustrated if it lasts too long or if I can’t figure out how to help her. I get upset when she doesn’t want my help and why she denies me when I try to hold her. I’m at my wits end when there’s just nothing I can do to put her in a good me. It the worst feeling in the world.
These moments make me feel sad and angry and frustrated and overwhelmed, all at the same time.
These are the moments when I feel helpless
— totally worthless.
But these are the moments when Ava needs me to hug her and love on her and smother her with kisses, more than any other moment in her life. Of course those blissful moments are important too but through the moments of anger and frustration, that’s when she needs me and that’s when she needs me to show her that I’m there — I’ll always be there.
No matter how many times she denies my hugs or how many times she bats off my kisses, there always comes a point whether it’s 20 minutes or an hour into a tantrum that she accepts my love. And these are the moments I live for.
When we hug our kids when they’re at their worst, we’re showing them that we will never give up on them. We’re showing them that they’re special to us, through thick and thin. We’re showing them that they’re important and they’re human and that no matter what life may throw at us both, that we are their mothers and we will never ever stop loving them. No matter what.
So let’s hug our kids through the blissful moments but hug them even tighter when we’re at our worst.
