Night terrors
Have you ever been hit in the face?
Or bitten or spat on or kicked?
Have you ever been told
that you’re ugly and old?
Have you pursed for a kiss
And been licked?
Have you ever been peed on in bed?
Or pushed till you fell on the floor?
Have you ever been bruised,
battered, bashed and abused
till you just couldn’t take anymore?
Do you cry in the night while he’s sleeping?
Exhausted, alone and afraid
Do you swear that you will
never give up the pill
as you stare at the monster you’ve made?
“My patience, resolutions and beliefs are tested to the limits – sometimes daily.”*
Right at this moment one of my challenges is the constant, tuneless whistling from my elder son. When my boys were babies it was getting them to sleep or trying to figure out why they were crying. On any given day now, it might be squabbling, fighting, teasing, screaming, shouting or rudeness. Who’d be a parent? We might well question ourselves after the event, but we can’t very well put them back! Just how we find those inner resources, how we constantly demand more of ourselves, how we keep marching up that hill with a smile on our face and gladness in our heart at the sight of our ‘babies’ is one of life’s mysteries.
* © from Being Mummy by Anne‑marie Taplin published April 2007