Of course I agree that kids say the darndest things…my four-year-old has a constant flow of head-turning, publicly humiliating, pee-in-your-pants funny “toddler wisdom” coming out of his mouth.
All that goes without saying. Kids say the darndest things.
But this post isn’t about kids and what they say. This post is about the things that kids make us parents say. The words that I absolutely cannot believe just came out of my mouth.
Mommies of young children, can I please get an “Amen” when I say…”Parents say the darndest things.”
Never in my wildest dreams of parenting did I imagine myself saying things like…”Rudy, stop hitting Daddy with that pickle!”. Or, “Ok Rudy, just this once you can put your hiney on that tire.” I said both of these things within the last two months.
Parenting has been a whirlwind of sweet and shocking surprises. A good surprise would be discovering just how much love my heart can have for a tiny, precious person. It is absolutely incredible that God designed mommies to be capable of loving a person to the point that we would gladly die for our child a thousand times.
And falling into the shocking surprises category of parenting would be the absolutely incredible amount of spit-up that a tiny human can produce, or the tiny amount of sleep that a parent can survive on.
But both of these categories, the shocking and the sweet, fall underneath an umbrella of joy…at least, they should.
So it is with a glad heart that I think about the strange things that come out of my mouth as a result of my child’s antics. I love the gift of funniness!
The Terminix man came over for our yearly inspection a few weeks ago. And let me tell you, he showed up at THE time.
You know the time. One child was running around naked. The house was unrecognizably messy. My teeth were unbrushed (at 1pm, mind you), and here’s the kicker…I was cleaning out the guest bedroom and had the attic trap door down with about half my boxes already in the attic and the other half sprawled around on the floor.
Welcome, Terminix man.
So I let him in and, bless him, he helped me get the rest of the boxes up in the attic! (Yes, we will be renewing our termite bond with Terminix).
Anyway, once we had all caught our breath, he asked me a question…one most mommies have heard at some time or another: “How do you do it???”
Haha…great question.
What went through my mind was…”Well, if you’re asking about some magic elixir…that would be the blood of Jesus.” But it only went through my mind, and not out of my mouth. Not because I don’t believe or love that truth, it was simply because I was sweating profusely and exhausted and didn’t have the energy for any type of meaningful conversation.
But what did come out of my mouth was…”Well, you just have to laugh. A lot.”
Ain’t it the truth. If I can’t take a step back, survey the madness, the chaos, the ridiculous things that I find myself saying everyday and LAUGH…then I am in for some trying times.
Be encouraged, mommies! Things will not remain like this forever!
Are you covered in every conceivable body fluid/excretion know to man? That’s hilarious! Jot that one down in your journal.
Find joy and amusement in the daily “trials”…for “a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Prov. 17:22)
“Rudy, give Mark his imaginary baseball back!”
Parents say the darndest things.
