One of Those Days

My daughter-in-law, Kelsey, had "one of those days" on Thursday. One of those days that stretches a mother's patience and energy to the very limit. Sweetpea (who, by the way, is getting close to two years old) was testing her in a major way. I sympathized with Kelsey as I read the first part of her blog, but by the end, she had convinced herself, once again and without a doubt, that Sweetpea is a terrific kid, and that she loves, more than anything, being her full-time mama.

The year Chris was born, he was one of ten new babies born to our small church congregation of around 100 people! And we, the mothers, were a close-knit group. Since most of us were full-time moms, we all experienced days like Kelsey described on Thursday. I think days like those were what prompted us to devise a plan, whereby each one of us would have one child-free day every month. We put our names into a matrix, so that each month I, for instance, would babysit someone else's pre-school aged child(ren) for one day; and someone else would babysit mine for a day. It was up to each mother to arrange her day off. If she didn't make arrangements to use her day one month (that seldom happened), it was gone - no stockpiling. We didn't keep track of hours or number of kids. It was just a FREE DAY once a month for each mom. Not only did it give the moms a day off, but it gave the children two play days a month - one at their own home, and one at someone else's - with a variety of friends.

I wish I lived closer to Kelsey, so that I could give her a day off at least once a month. That would, indeed, be a two-way blessing!

Just look at this child. How could someone with a face like that be any trouble at all? And, by the way, have you noticed how tall she's getting?!

(Pictures by Kelsey)