Right there

With toddlers, personal space is a rarity. ⠀⠀

There they are, right there next to you every moment you spend together.⠀⠀

Right there next to you when you try to drink your coffee;⠀⠀

Right there clinging onto your leg while you try and do the dishes;⠀⠀

Right there prodding you with a toy while you try to talk on they phone.⠀⠀

⠀⠀

And when you try for space, there they are, right there next to you, every moment you try not to spend with them. ⠀⠀

Right there next to you after they burst into the bathroom crying for you to end your shower;⠀

Right there clinging to the edge of the bath saying “bisket mum bikkie” when you thought you got away.⠀⠀

Right there prodding your back while you try to have a nap in the 30 minutes that dad is home for lunch. ⠀⠀

There they are, right there, always. ⠀⠀

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There’s a lot of trying, from them as they try for your attention and from you as you try to get anything done for them, for your husband, for the house, for the garden, for your work, for your pets, for your friends, oh and of course I “should” say for yourself.⠀⠀

It’s a team effort.⠀⠀

Even though most of the time it doesn’t feel like that;⠀

And even though it feels like there is only the “me” in team (and by me, I don’t mean me);⠀

They do want to be part of the team and play their role. In their own way, in the only way they know how.⠀⠀

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So there they are, always, playing their role.⠀⠀

There they are right there with us, right there next to us, right there clinging to us, right there prodding us, right there disrupting us and right there waking us. ⠀⠀

This is their way of reminding us that we are the most important thing to them right now.⠀⠀

They don’t know any different. ⠀⠀⠀

But one day there will be no right there or right now.⠀

There will just will be less reminders and they will know different.⠀⠀⠀

Gulp.⠀

Right there they can stay, right now! Right?