When you first have children, we talk endlessly about the challenges of parenting—the sleepless nights with a newborn, the toddler who won’t stay in their bed, the rising cost of childcare, the bumps, bruises, and injuries that come with sports and growing up.
There are the rushed days of leaving work early to pick them up from school when they don’t feel well, sitting at the kitchen table helping with homework, stepping over toys in a messy house, and folding what feels like never-ending laundry. There’s the cost of school clothes, the constant packing of lunches, and the quiet exhaustion that becomes part of everyday life.
And yet, in the middle of all that chaos, you watch their eyes light up on Christmas morning and try to hold onto the magic for as long as you can.
You coach their teams, rush from practice to practice, and spend weekends at ballgames. You drive countless miles and tote them all over the country just to let them play the game they love, no matter how tired you are or how expensive it becomes.
Life is so busy that you rarely stop to think about what the end of those days might look like. In truth, it’s not something you can even fully wrap your mind around. You go into parenting thinking that 18 or 20 years sounds like a long time.
Then somehow, hours turn into days, days into months, and months into years.
That little person who once crawled into your bed for cartoons and cuddles suddenly becomes a young adult who gives you a quick hug in the hallway as they come and go. The noise, laughter, and chaos that once filled your home slowly fade, replaced by silence and stillness you never imagined missing so deeply.
You learned how to parent a child who needed your constant care and protection, but no one ever teaches you how to let go. So you hold on as tightly as you can, wondering how time slipped through your fingers so fast, feeling guilty that you must have missed something along the way.
Because even though you had nearly 20 years, it somehow doesn’t feel like enough.
The questions start to flood your mind.
Did I teach them the right lessons?
Did I read enough bedtime stories?
Did I spend enough time playing with them?
How many school parties did I miss?
Do they really know how much I love them?
What could I have done better?
When it’s finally time for them to leave, it hits you like a ton of bricks. And all you can do is pray, hope, and trust that God will protect them as they step out into the world on their own.
Parenting is the most amazing experience of your life—one that can leave you exhilarated one moment and completely heartbroken the next. But one thing is certain: it never feels like enough time.
So to all the parents of young children, whose days are spent just trying to survive the madness, exhausted from morning to night—
Soak. It. All. In.
Because one day, the cartoons, the snuggles, the sleepovers, the Christmas morning magic, the ballgames, practices, and late-night dinners will come to an end.
And you’ll be left hoping you did enough right, trusting that when they finally spread their wings…
They’ll fly.
