Happy Mother’s Day, RFM Moms!
We strive to have something for you in every issue of Richmond Family Magazine, no matter what stage of the mom game you’re in. In this issue alone, we have feature stories on Gardasil for preteens and teens, dealing with younger picky eaters, and the first of our series on Disn ey World – for everyone! And if our feature stories don’t grab you in any given month, fear not, you can always find great recipes from our frie nds at You’ve Got Supper, great topics in Family Health, the most amazing calendar of family-friendly events, and lots more!
Mother’s Day celebrates moms at every stage of the game, too, and boy, what a difference a stage makes! A friend who just gave birth to her fi rst baby admits that it’s the hardest job of her life. She is struggling with that difficult early phase of trying to figure out the right formula , how to relieve the poor baby’s painful gas, and doing anything to get him to sleep for more than an hour at a time. All of us seasoned moms keep telling her that this is temporary, and it will all be a distant memory in no time. But when you’re in that moment, and all you want is a hot shower and along nap, it’s hard to imagine there will ever be a new stage.
On the opposite end is a friend who is preparing to send her daughter of f to college. Every day is a maze of college decisions, financial aid na vigation, cap and gown ordering, senior portrait sittings, and the sinking feeling that the house is going to be way too quiet come August. She and her daughter have always been very close, so she has mixed emotions about sending her baby off on her own (I think the mom is secretly shopping for an apartment of her own on the edge of campus…).
In my world, I just registered my oldest for kindergarten, and it was al l I could do to hold myself together as I pulled in to the parking lot. Havi ng no idea where I was going, I poked my head into what I assumed was the main office. “Looking for kindergarten registration? Head down to the gym,” the nice woman said. “Where is that, exactly?” I asked sheepishly. As I strolled down the hall toward the gym, I gazed around the grounds of the campus-style school, sure that in a few months I’d know this p lace like the back of my hand. But then, it was completely foreign and more than a little scary, thinking about my little guy in this great big place all alone (okay, not all alone, but try telling that to an emotional mom who is in the moment!).
Just like everyone says, the time has flown by. And as I’ve mentioned in this column before, I just can’t believe my little preemie is a t-ball player and about to be a school-aged boy. We’ve survived the first few stages, and I know there are so many more to come, most of them much harder than the formula shuffle, teething, and the terrible twos. But on this Mother’s Day, it’ll be mud-pies and a vase full of dandelions for me, and I wouldn’t trade this stage for anything.
