Mamas...I feel ya.
Watching them sitting there with their friends like they are so big and independent, while we still see dimpled fingers and sticky smiles.
This is for the moms who are so bloody tired and anxious and worn out from the summer frenzy that they just need a moment, just one peaceful moment with a friend, even if it's in a hot car watching their kids act big while they gulp down green apple slushies.
This is for all of the moms whose houses look like the Pittsburg Steelers threw a house party.
This is for all the moms who planned to have their children read for an hour every day of the summer and just realized it's only 29 days until school and they haven't even implemented the plan yet.
This is for all the moms looking at Facebook who think that the magnificent things posted are just "a day in the life" when really that might be the best that happened to that person all year.
This is for the moms who planned on being June Cleaver this summer and growing summer squash and maybe even canning something, only to find they may have come closer to channeling Roseanne.
This is for all the moms who are just doing their danged best, laughing one minute but feel that the laughter could also possibly turn into tears of frustration.
Because they just need 10 minutes of silence. Or one chapter. Or a margarita.
This is for my hero, the mom I saw a few days ago at Target who
had two boys wearing Avenger Age of Ultron voice changer masks. They were using robot voices and circling her like the raptors circled Chris Pratt in Jurassic World.
She was simply trying to have a few solitary minutes on the phone with another mom. She didn't seem to get irritated at all. She is either from another state that just started their summer break, or I want to be her when I grow up.
She remained much more calm than I did when I was trying to find sulfate-free shampoo that also smelled masculine for my boys. I picked out four shampoos and simply wanted them to smell them and pick their favorite. This, theoretically, should have taken 45 seconds.
But mine had to break the shampoo bottles into teams, like brackets in a baseball tournament, with one eventually coming out the winner. Right there in the middle of the dirty floor. And then my oldest had to change his winner in the end because his little brother picked the same one. We can't have anyone copying.
For. The. Love.
Summer can be such a paradox. So many of our best memories and sweetest moments we have with our families are in the sweet, sweet summertime.
And yet, sometimes the togetherness for so many consecutive days can cause nerves to be raw, irritations to be magnified, and noises to be louder and grate...grate...grate.
I heard an evangelist make this statement the other night on TV. He said the first step to cure depression is a meaningful conversation. But I believe it applies to the summer frenzies as well.
The first step to cure summertime frenzy and stress is a meaningful conversation with a friend.
Even if it's sitting all hot in sweaty in your car at Sonic.
Power through mamas. We are all in this together.
