Are You Enjoying Every Single Moment?

If you’re a parent, how many well-intentioned people have come up to you (usually when you’re frantically trying to pay for your groceries before you and/or your children explode) and said, “I hope you’re enjoying every second, it goes by so fast.”

Every second?  Really??

Glennon Melton writes in Don’t Carpe Diem in The Huffington Post:

But last week, a woman approached me in the Target line and said the following:

“Sugar, I hope you are enjoying this.  I loved every single second of parenting my two girls.  Every single moment. These days go by so fast.”

At that particular moment, Amma had arranged one of the new bras I was buying on top of her sweater and was sucking a lollipop that she must have found on the ground.  She also had three shop-lifted clip-on neon feathers stuck in her hair.  She looked exactly like a contestant from Toddlers and Tiaras.  I couldn’t find Chase anywhere, and Tish was grabbing the pen on the credit card swiper thing WHILE the woman in front of me was trying to use it.  And so I just looked at the woman, smiled and said, “Thank you.  Yes.  Me too.  I am enjoying every single moment.  Especially this one.  Yes. Thank you.”

That’s not exactly what I wanted to say though….

Melton makes some great points about the impossibility of loving every second, but the possibility of savoring the moments.  If you’re a parent who has ever felt guilty about not enjoying every minute with your children, this is a hilarious and poignant article that puts the journey into perspective.