MY LIFE WITH CHILDREN IS FULL OF SURPRISES

“The best thing about family life is that every day is full of surprises, half of which are sweet and tasty and the other half bitter and real”

I get in the car and turn on the radio:

“Oh, what wonderful music!”

Thoughts race through my head: What favorite movie, a nice get-together with friends, or a family party do I recognize this melody from? And then my brain remembers – of course, from the cartoons I’ve been watching since becoming a mom.

What’s your favorite movie? Forget it, woman, you’re a mother. In the evening, when the kids are asleep, even if I put on my favorite movie, I fall asleep within 30 minutes.

I remember when “The Secret Life of Pets” was Dorothy’s first cartoon, and we’d listen to the song “Welcome to New York” on repeat. Patrick’s favorite movies, and of course, favorite music, were “Rio,” then “Zootopia,” where Shakira sang the hit “Try Everything”, and now every episode of “Minions” with all their hits. My playlist of favorite songs from before I became a mom is gone.

I tried this once while driving my kids to school. About two years ago, when my daughter was three, I turned up the volume and played “I’m Sexy and You Know It.” My daughter sang it at lunch and told her teacher, “Mom taught me these words.” Instead of: “Mom listened to this kind of music in the car.” One silly sentence was all it took, and when I picked my daughter up from preschool, the teacher told me my three-year-old daughter was singing something about sex. Well, I wasn’t expecting it; I should have, because I’m a mom, but I was shocked. Let me tell you, dear parents, it was incredibly embarrassing; I could feel my face burning with shame.

https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/mommy-and-dark-magic/

After that experience, our favorite song became “Baby Shark.” A less pleasant, but also less embarrassing hit.

Surprises in parents’ lives

If I had to make any recommendations to those with children, it would be that, despite your strong will and the principles you follow, you will give in and fail miserably. Your little bosses will decide for themselves what they want to listen to and what they want to dance to. I sympathize with everyone who is at this stage; it’s traumatic, but I must add that we’re no longer in preschool, but in school, and other songs are at the top of the list.

My little ones are now thrilled and having a blast listening to “Pedro, Pedro” and “Espresso-Machiato,” so I just have to wait and let the excitement die down. My psyche is definitely more tolerant and resistant to constantly listening to these songs than it was in Nursery.

As parents, we’re at a completely different stage in life in every way. There are times when, without the kids, I could freely criticize sweet dishes for dinner, calling them disgusting. Now, however, we live in the Czech Republic, and my son loves sweet Czech dinners like “Ovocné tvarohové knedlíky” (boiled dumplings with fruit) and “Buchtičky z kremem” (bread rolls with cream). https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/how-quickly-can-you-change-your-food-choices/

My stomach twists when I smell warm, sweet food. Bars, yes, sweet pancakes, why not? But as a main course, sweet meals aren’t my thing. Of course, I don’t tell my son it’s “yuck,” I simply explain that not everything that’s “delicious” to him is necessarily “delicious” to his mother.

Mommy’s Emotional Levels

A part of my parenting that I still don’t understand is my emotional changes, which—like allergies—appeared after giving birth and stayed with me forever. I became a crybaby.

The pregnancy ended, but the crying didn’t stop. And not because of pain or other tragic experiences, but because of unfounded crying, as sometimes happens with children. For example, I cry with my kids when, in “Finding Nemo”, the father sees him upside down in a plastic bag at the end of the journey and believes his son is dead. Or I burst into uncontrollable laughter while watching “Moana” when Maui wants to eat Moana’s friend chicken for dinner.

https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/my-new-face/

Forget about your choices

In mommy life, your own interests are no longer a priority. It’s time to get involved in everything your children love: gymnastics and dance for Dora, flute and drum lessons for Patrick. You take the kids from one activity to another, the sun sets, and with it, my creative inspiration and post ideas. I have a thousand thoughts running through my head about what I have planned for the kids tomorrow, but I’m running out of posts. Even when I’m trying to focus because my little ones are taking a bath and I have a 20-minute break, I hear from the bathroom:

Mi amore 
Mi amore 
Espresso macchiato, macchiato, macchiato 
Por favore
Por favore 
Espresso macchiato corneo

And there’s a black hole in my head, my inspiration has fled into the forest to bury itself in a grave.