The best days

It had been a morning.

Getting them out of the house took forever. We were late. I hadn’t had a coffee.

I needed a coffee.

The thought of sitting down for one that I didn’t make filled me with so much happiness.

And in that moment I felt optimistic, so I decided that taking them to a cafe was a good idea.

I parked the car.

Put them in the double pram.

Pushed them to the cafe.

Things seemed to be going well.

When we arrived I ordered, then set us up on a table outside.

That’s when things started to turn.

Before the drinks had arrived, one was trying to get out of the high chair, and the other was trying to pick flowers out of the beautiful cafe garden.

There was a missing teddy, and then fights over the found one.

I repeatedly told them that the salt and pepper shakers, the sugar sticks and the knifes and folks were not toys. There were no toys at the venue.

When the food and drinks arrived, we had a minute or two of calm. I managed a few sips of my coffee. It was delicious.

Then came the inevitable.

A smoothie was spilt over the table and partially over me. Biscuits were thrown on the ground and then stood on. There were tears over the teddy now covered in fluffy.

In short, finishing my coffee had become unmanageable. So I apologised to the staff, cleaned what I could, and we left, my coffee half-finished.

I went to the bathroom on the way out. I felt so overwhelmed. A little embarrassed. And upset that the one thing I so desperately wanted, just couldn’t be today.

I kept thinking about this as I pushed them back to the car.⠀

On the way we passed a little old lady pushing a stroller walking frame.

And do you know what she said?

“Those are the days”.

She said it with a smile of such knowing too.

One that only someone who has moved through many stages of life can give.

And all of a sudden, everything shifted.

Like it needed to.

I was reminded that no matter how hard some of these moments can be right now, these are the days, the best days.

And that one day when I’m the one pushing a stroller, I’ll be wishing I was still pushing a pram too.