30/09/2023
A mom’s never really sleeping well.
She’s always on call.
Her eyes are closed, but she hears everything.
When her children are young,
she can somehow hear their every breath,
the soft whimpers when her babies want the rocking sensation—before they let out a wail,
the door creaking open when her child has an accident at 3 am,
and the screams from a nightmare as she runs to tousle her crying child’s hair and wipe away tears.
She can feel,
the uncomfortable position of her children’s feet in her face, and she doesn’t want to wake them. So, she stays like that. All night long.
And she’s too busy
taking in her second wind,
doing all the stuff she didn't have time to do all day because she was following her kids around.
So she doesn't sleep.
And when her children are older,
she’s up all night worried about her child struggling with Academics and her other child struggling socially,
hearing everything her children are up doing late at night and serving as an alarm clock for school early the following day,
and on the weekends, staying up late until their curfew,
so that she knows they're home safe.
And when they’re on their own,
she waits for their texts and calls that they’re home safe,
and she's worrying more than ever because “big kids, big problems.”
So, no matter her children’s ages,
a mom’s never really sleeping well.
✍️:
📷: Unknown Artist
credit copyright thais vanderheyden
