Full hands = full hearts

To the mother with babies close in age,

They will tell you you’re crazy. And then laugh to make it appear they’re joking. But it doesn’t always feel like a joke when your body is breaking with exhaustion. It feels like a lot of judgment you don’t need right now.

They will tell you “you have your hands full”, when you are passing them in the grocery store. Yet often they don’t offer a hand.

They may even tell you “wow you are a sucker for punishment”. That’s probably my least favourite. Because my kids are not a punishment. They are worth all that I put myself through.

They will tell you things that seem unhelpful.

So let me tell you what may actually help you.

It’s so lovely you have children close in age.

I don’t need to know why that is your situation. Or judge you for it.

It’s none of my business.

How lucky are we to have them at all?

And I know how crazy some days are. Someone is always crying. Needing something or hitting someone.

But equally someone is always smiling at someone, giving something, or cuddling someone.

There are the hard parts. But the amazing parts too.

And then there’s you. The mother who has been through so much. Who is going though so much. In so little time.

I know there’s almost no time for you. That the little age gaps, mean big gaps in time between meeting your own basic needs.

I hope you are doing okay.

I try to see things in a few years. When we will have all that time back. Our bodies back. Our sanity back. And I try to imagine how incredible it will feel to have them around our full dinner tables discussing memories of moments where they shared so much of so many stages together, with us.

It will be worth it.

It will.

How could it not be?

After all, those full hands -

They mean full hearts.