WSV Columnist Steph Hightree writes, “I am by no means an expert on picking your battles. But I do have 13 years of parenting experience to fall back on and I’ll tell you what, I have lost more than I have won. But my children are alive and happy and healthy, and I haven’t lost all of my hair yet.”
"I want to start this letter by telling you how much you mean to me and how proud I am of you. You are amazing and I think the world of you. You will always be my little girl no matter how old you are. But it won’t be long before you are ready to leave the nest and start your own journey. Before that happens, I want to give you some advice."
"From the toddler stage we moved into the little boy stage. The stage where Nathan was learning to become independent. Learning about things he liked and disliked, and teaching us to accommodate his needs as they came along. We were working diligently to help him navigate life with Autism, and he started to be able to do more things for himself. But he still needed some help. He still needed me. He still needed that Happy Meal."
WSV Columnist Steph Hightree writes, "Most of all, I have learned I never want to be a teacher, and that teaching is a thankless profession. We really need to give these teachers a little more grace and credit than we are giving them in this unprecedented time. Teaching in a normal environment is hard enough but teaching remotely during a pandemic? It’s nearly impossible."
"This time of the year can be a challenge. But I hope my children see all of the little details I put into making it the best Christmas for them. I hope they know how much I love them, and I hope one day I will realize I really do enjoy all of the behind-the-scenes work it takes to make wonderful memories and traditions. I guess all I really want for Christmas is a nap and for someone else to do the dishes after dinner. Is that really too much to ask for?"
"And then we move onto the elves who TP the house. In this Covid world we all know that toilet paper is worth more than gold right now. Why are you wasting perfectly good TP? Are you going to recycle it and reuse it after it's done its job? Is that weird? Is reusing toilet paper a thing?"
"I’ve said this in almost every column I have written but it will always be true, being a mom is hard. But being a mom in the middle of a pandemic is close to impossible. My children are 13 and 10, so they have questions and concerns of their own. I can’t sugarcoat things anymore. I have to tell them the truth or else they will inevitably call me out."
I wanted adult conversation. To feel like I had someone in my corner when I felt like I was failing. I wanted someone to go to coffee with. But I have to admit, making mom friends is hard. Like really hard.
"So I became a 'Soccer Mom' a couple of weeks ago. I mean, I don’t have a soccer mom van, but I did a few years ago, well, until the door fell off. But that's a story for a different time."
"As I sit back and think about it, I wonder how we do it all every morning. How do we keep everything together when really all we want to do is go back to sleep? Why do I always feel like my head is going to blow up from all the stress our morning routine causes? Why can’t I get it together?"
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