Off to the cupboard with you, Chip

This is for those parents who have ever had to put their child in time-out for a minute just to cool down! I mean for the parent to cool down. Im sure I am not alone in this. Parenting can be downright hard when you have some extraneous stressor in your life. I have been dealing with some things outside of my inner circle lately (my husband and our kids) and it was all getting to the best of my emotions! I would have to put my kids in “time-out” for a few just so I could cry alone a minute or take a few deep breaths. It wasn’t the fact they left their cup on the couch, it was that my mind was really trying to handle things outside of them. Like work, extended family, finances, etc! 

Anyhow, I was reading Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” to our daughter tonight and I swear a separate book entirely could be made just on the alliterations in it. I mean the mom is turned into a teapot. Her son, a chipped teacup. Such a picture of parent life here! She has to endure the boiling water every day, sometimes all day, and at just the right temperature and with precision, pour herself out into her child, without spilling or under or overfilling. What a daunting task. A nearly impossible one to fulfill every time. In fact, I almost guarantee that is why Chip is cracked. Sometimes Mrs. Potts doesn’t wait to cool her tea down before pouring it out. She just boils over right into him, steam spraying everywhere as he covers his ears or eyes and runs away. Also, out of necessity from the busyness of the life they have created, she rushes her kid about from one task to the next. Maybe she even broke a little piece of him with her words in a moment of stress and overwhelm. But that little Chip, boy he loves his momma. The way he looks at her and trusts her, despite the moments she needs a sip of air, man it is special. And even though they are under a spell, in a season of darkness, never to know if they’ll ever be human again, they have each other and that is more than enough to get through today.

So show and receive grace, be honest with yourself and your kids. Practice forgiveness and learn to say NO when a commitment is too much. After all, you are a product of the five people you spend the most time with, to include yourself. So make darn sure you are pouring out perfectly warm, not sputtering tea into them! Be sure to decompress and let some steam off in a healthy way, and not towards those who are innocent. You’ve got this! In another post, we will talk about ways to cope with stress- even when kids are around!