Trip Down Memory Lane

It struck me the other day that I have now been writing Kiddy Kaos for over four years.

Back then, as a stay-at-home mum with three pre-schoolers and prime witness to all their antics, I did what most mums do these days: why post it on Facebook of course!

 

“Had never experienced a toddler dipping their hands in their dirty nappy and spreading the contents all thru their bed and up the walls ... until now!
Ew, ew, ew ... man my life rocks!”  (2010)

While these little snippets from our pre-schoolers’ lives might conjure up a smile from the reader, along with the press of the ‘like’ button (well, maybe not this example), they would all get lost in cyber and, eventually forgotten.

As many parents know, the first years go by in a haze. I’ve always thought it important to record precious memories so I decided to expand on these ongoing extracts and combine my two passions: my kids and writing stories.

My aim of sharing it was to give other struggling parents a glimpse into another household’s chaos so they could see that we’re all in the same boat. I also hoped it would give grandparents something to reminisce about as, technology and pc standards aside, kids themselves have not really changed. 

At the end of it all I will have several volumes-worth for my own children, the main characters, to peruse if they wish, once they too are in the same situation with their own offspring.

All my stories are recorded on my blog and it was for the sake of researching for this story, I decided to pay it a visit. Trawling through the archives, I was amazed at some of the situations I used to find myself in.

 There was the time we took our two-month-old twins and toddler camping on our bare land (how did we do it?!), the

poo-painting saga (including all up the family tent wall!), the endless and inevitable birds and the bees questions, missing teeth, swearing, toilet humour and public meltdowns.

There were the holiday disasters, including the time everyone but me caught the vomiting bug and I drove home from Auckland with the three children stripped of their clothes in their cars seats, stripped back to the bare buckets, the car reeking of spew.

There was the story about the whole family catching head lice and then another – “The Return of the Kutus” and the time my three walked in while I was watching Embarrassing Bodies and caught a glimpse of the ‘fannies and willies and big black boobies’ as they took great delight in regaling to their kindy teachers that week.

Then there were the terrifying ambulance rides and multiple

hospital trips – Miss Three lodging a bead up her nose and Master One’s febrile seizure, vomiting dehydration and choking-induced CPR – the latter being the only I couldn’t cast a humorous retrospective slant on.

Looking back I see, during one lot of school holidays I even considered taking out a ‘Wanted’ ad for a home for my three children. I’m sure if they read the full story, they would see my reasoning.  

Admittedly, I mostly glossed over the headings – the names evoking the memory of the story but there was one - ‘It’s Not All Bad’ - which got my attention and I read it in full: It started like this:

Last week my nana gave me a wee lecture.

“Jodi,” she said, waving the newspaper in her hand. “You know, one of these days I’m really hoping to read something positive from you. After all, it can’t be all bad,” she said, giving me a meaningful look.

 

It was a good reality check and, looking back, I can see I changed my attitude.  

My trip down memory lane revisited our journey of the triumphs and tribulations through parenthood to date and when I emerged, it was, not only with a tear in my eye, but with the reinforced message to live in the moment and cherish every one of them.