Friday 22 March 2013

The beauty of time and perspective


The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow.” H.G. Wells.
I read this quote the other day and it struck me how well it relates to the trials and tribulations of parenting. It is so easy to get bogged down with the little frustrations, the things that go wrong and the tough aspects of parenting (sleepless nights, illnesses that drag on and on, shocking tantrums etc). Yet, given a bit of time, we tend to look back on those times with a smile or laugh. We've got passed them, we've recognised their relative insignificance to the grand scheme of things and sometimes they make a funny story to share!

As a very small example, we had our first poo in the bath the other weekend (yes, I can hardly believe I'm writing about poo either!). Our two children take a bath together and it was our youngest, our daughter, who did the poo. Our son was both horrified at what now shared the bath with them and devastated that his bath time had to come to an abrupt ending. Both children were crying and quite distressed and at the time, it was a moment of mild crisis. Of course, the next day we were telling the grandparents and having a good laugh about it!

Whilst mine is a slightly insignificant example, the intent is to show that with a bit of time and perspective, a lot of these things that were a challenge in the moment can prove to be quite trivial. With the benefit of hindsight you sometimes wonder why you expended so much energy stressing or worrying about whatever it was.

Not always easy, but next time you feel like you are faced with a bit of a crisis, try to think of the quote above. Your disaster of the day may turn out to be a source of amusement another day soon. The 'crises' are ultimately all good life experience and indeed enrich our life and memories in the long term.

Can you think of examples of when you've felt like things couldn't get much worse but at a later date, look back and smiled about it?

4 comments:

  1. I remember when my daughter decided to paint herself from head to toe. Non toxic finger paint became body paint. Instead of making a fuss I decided to laugh about it there and then. We still talk about it 15 years later. :) Further down the line it's all about love and sharing time together. Even if it was messy or unexpected.
    Being a mom is not easy but it sure is never dull.

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    1. Lovely story Maryse! Always good to try to laugh about things at the time too if you can, rather than letting them get to you.

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  2. Heheeeee! Fantastic! I can just imagine the expressions of horror on little faces. So cute. But yes, stressful at the time, no doubt!

    A very good philosophy and coping mechanism. If you can catch yourself in the moment and get a bit of perspective... I like that quote!

    I've been so tired and short tempered of late that every little thing has been a crisis, but things are a bit brighter. I'm even learning to embrace the messy now we're always crafting and painting - and we even painted each other's noses today :D xx

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    1. Glad you like the quote too :-). That's brilliant that you've felt the fog lifting and have been enjoying some messy play with your little one recently. Hope things continue to feel brighter. xx

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Thank you for reading. I'd love to have your comments and thoughts!