Some mornings seem to demand every bit of patience we have. Feelings overflow, small frustrations pile up and before the day has really begun, we already feel slightly drained.
When there is not even time for a proper break
That morning was like that. I was trying to stay calm and not get pulled into the anger and tiredness, reminding myself that my children mostly needed me to be their anchor. Even while, inside, my own battery was beginning to flash very seriously.
Then, without me doing anything, everything stopped.
My baby fell asleep against me. Beside us, my three-year-old settled down quietly with his lift-the-flap book. For a few moments, nobody was crying, nobody was asking for anything and nobody needed me to solve a problem.
There was nothing extraordinary about it. Just a sleeping baby, a little boy absorbed in his book and me between them. But after a difficult morning, those few seconds of calm felt wonderful.
With young children, the moments that let us breathe do not always look like a real break. Sometimes they are just a small lull in the noise. A few seconds when everything is okay and we can simply notice it.
So when those moments arrive, I try not to rush straight through them.
Of course, around twenty seconds later, my son accidentally tore a page out of his favourite book.
End of the peaceful interlude.
We immediately moved into emergency repair mode with sticky tape.
