A Shout Out to Mommies and Daddies

It is an absolute honor to enter the sacred realms of families across the country.  My friends have opened their homes to me as I travel, and I have the privilege of walking through the corridors of their castles and enjoying their most precious treasures...their children.  I watch parents kiss and hug their children, argue with each other about parenting preferences, play with them, clean up after them, pack the strollers, calm a tantrum storm, and collapse at the end of the day.  From coast to coast from San Diego to Boston, mommies and daddies are attempting to win battles like broccoli versus mac and cheese for dinner.  

A shout out to you blessed humans raising little mini humans!  Children have been a humungous part of my trip.  One of my greatest joys, as part of my focus on gifting, is to find ways to serve the families with whom I stay.  Here are a few of my favorite ways to give:

1. Dishes. Anyone who wants to follow me on this trip gets to imagine me doing hours and hours of dishes from town to town.  Sink after sink has seen my bubbled hands! I like to give my friends a little break from this task. One of my very favorite kind of dish-doing moments, by chance, happened today. I wait until both parents step out of the house. I rush to the kitchen and get moving. When they return, I am back in position on the couch as if passing the time away carelessly. Dishes elves, perhaps?
2. Babysitting.  Oh the joy in a parent's eye for even 1 hour to themselves.  My ultimate favorite is babysitting the kids specifically so that the beautiful couple can go on a date all by themselves.  I have a great babysitting memory of one couple who said their goodbyes to me and the kids, walked out the front door to their car, sighed, smiled at each other and immediately started to kiss before driving away. They came back smiling, scooped up their children and glanced at each other, just a little more connected.  One of my friends in another town said, "It's funny.  You marry the man you're in love with so you can spend the rest of your life with him, and he becomes the one person you hardly see." For any parent reading this right now, I send you a blessing of free or very affordable weekly babysitting so that you get to remember that you deserve to be in love.  
3. Play. You know who I am and how seriously I take this...I came to the planet to play.  I play games both with the universe and with bouncing balls.  I play money games, love games, faith games, peek-a-boo games with babies and karate games with energetic toddlers.  Today I played "build and crash the blocks" for um, quite a while.  I get mesmerized how every time the blocks crashed down, every time it can still be a thrill for this little 16 month old, every time like it was the first time.  But I suppose adults are the same with what we build and take down too. A few days ago I spent a lovely day at the farmers' market, and stayed long enough to see everyone take down their tents and slide the remainder produce in their trucks, knowing they would all be back again next Sunday to do it all again.
4. Witnessing.  I believe one of the greatest gifts we can give one another in humanity is to be seen. I get to come to homes as a loving observer, and I get to see (and hear) how important that toy was when it's taken away. Two, three, four meltdowns later, this time about the donut you won't let them eat until they have more cucumber, or, or, or...  Parents look over at me with tired eyes.  Yes, I see you, and together we just laugh a little. One mom with two screaming kids climbing on her (wow such lung capacity they had) called over their wailings and said to me in humor, "Is this a practical joke?" She said later that evening that on a past day that moment, compiled with so so so many others just like it, might have sent her close to a breakdown.  But having someone see her struggle allowed it to be funny.  

Mommies and daddies, you're doing a good job. You can breathe a little easier just for being witnessed.  A big hip hip hooray shout out to you all!