Nighttime parenting is often the hardest. Especially when the sleeplessness is stacked on top of each other and your body is begging for a reprieve. Nighttime parenting is often the hardest and often the most important. When everything is quiet, you are their choir in the darkness. When everything is lonely, you are their army.
Sometimes as the sun goes down my anxiety levels rise. How much time will he give me tonight before he calls out to me? Will my needs get met before I’m summoned to once again meet his? Shovel dinner in the mouth, tornado tidy the days disaster, connect with partner, brush teeth, wash face, the graveyard shift begins.
Dark hallways become tunnels. Shadows become companions. You always go to him but no one comes for you. For now, it is your job and yours alone. Your burden that becomes heavy as the sun sets. It won’t always be this way; he won’t always need you and only you. But for now, when he cries, you go, sprint even, to his side. Just as you do during the day. Why would it be any different when it’s dark?
Remind yourself of that when you feel it makes so sense. When you question what you’re doing wrong. Of course their favorite place is in your arms at night… that’s also their favorite place
during the day. Children are more than their ability to sleep through the night. And you are more than your ability to “teach” them how to do so. You are the ultimate nightlight. The sweetest white noise. The most precious ‘shhhhhhh’ that’s ever been whispered. You are everything. Day and Night.
A mothers night is simply an extension of her day.
