Before You Brush Them Off – Human Touch

I’m a mom of four kids under six years old.  It’s hilarious really, how I look walking to the park with one on my back in a hiking pack, one strapped to my chest in the Moby wrap, one I’m pushing in the stroller because he’s “too tired” to walk, and one is leading the parade on her bike with the squeaky gears and blaring bike horn.  Yes, I am a spectacle.

People ask me all the time, “Are those all your kids?”  And if you’re a mom of multiples, you know exactly what I mean.  I have kids clinging to me like barnacles.

I love the comedian Jim Gaffigan because he gets it: “You know what it’s like having five kids?  Imagine you’re drowning and someone hands you a baby.”  Yup.

Some days are awesome; some days are hard.  But you already know that.  We’re only two weeks into summer break and the laundry is piling up faster than a landfill, no dish stays clean longer than a Katy Perry song, and the more fun activities I plan for the kids {library, pool, craft time, cooking day}, the more they seem to act out.  They run circles around me, kicking up tornadoes of toys in their wake.  Pulling on me, needing me, leaving their scooters in the perfect place for me to trip over.

By 5:00, when my husband gets home from work and comes to hug me, I do what I so often do…push him away.  “Not now.”  I just can’t take one more person touching me.

Before you brush them off…

If these past two weeks were a movie, I’d see a busy woman so content on chasing her running to-do list that she pushes everyone else out of the way.   Someone wants a snack from the top shelf…she brushes them off.  Someone pulls at her shirt, wanting to be held…”Not now.”  She brushes them off.  Someone wants one more story before bed…”I already read one; that’s enough.”  She brushes them off.  When her husband scoots closer in the bed, reaching out to play with her hair…she rolls over…brushing him off.

The other night, as I was flipping through current events on my phone, I came across a story that turned my heart to ice.  Life changes in milliseconds people.  What was I doing, brushing off the people I cared about most in my life?  I bet Kathryn Capener would welcome piles of dirty laundry just to have peels of laughter bouncing off her walls again.  I bet she would welcome a thousand tornadoes of toys just to have ten more minutes to hold her little girls close.  I bet she would turn around immediately when her husband got home from work and greet him with a huge smile and hug.  I know she would sidle up right next to him in bed for just one more stroke of her hair, one more hand on her hip.  Life changes in milliseconds.

I recently heard the following from a widow who has been living alone for years now.  Her words keep ringing in my ears:

“Sometime during our life, for whatever reason, most of us will find ourselves alone.  It is not easy.  Loneliness can come upon us in a crowd; by ourselves; in the quiet hours of the night.  I miss the human touch.  The back rub or foot massage.  The hugs and handholding.  Date night, snuggles, and the phone calls, and so much more that only a person who lives alone can understand.”

Every day I have to remind myself how lucky I am.  Even when I’m exhausted and tired of little people clinging to me and pulling me in every direction, I have to remember how blessed I am by their tiny human touches.  When my guy comes home and I feel I have nothing left to give, I’ll recall how the power of human affection is nothing to take lightly, to brush away.

Hold your loved ones close.  Muster up just one more ounce of patience when you are depleted.  Savor the delicacy of the human touch.

One way to keep your loved ones close to your heart is to preserve their childhood, one imperfect moment at a time. Find out how here:

A great way to increase your patience and be more “present” in your day-to-day, is to make over your to-do list! This is a great read: