Things I wish my “Toddler Self” Knew

By: Samantha S. Daviss

As an adult, of course we will look back and say “If I knew then, what I know now”…but most of that applies to life lessons, life events, and major bumps in the road that we had to overcome, if we had only “known then, what we know now”.

This collection of thoughts and activities is a little more rudimentary, in the fact that it is just common sense, for us as adults:

1)      Sleep…it’s funny how kids fight wanting to nap, or go to bed at night, or even fall asleep to the hum of the road in a comfy car seat; but nonetheless they still fight it. As if it is some big surprise that they have to sleep. We all need it, and they don’t know that one day they will desire, nay revere sleep. As an adult…all we want to do is sleep. Between work, kids, activities, responsibilities, and life goals…we never seem to get enough of it. What I wouldn’t give for someone to carry me from the car and lay me in my bed and tell me I couldn’t get out until the morning. Ahhh…one can dream.

2)      Eat…Did someone say food? You can eat whatever and as much as you want, as long as it is healthy with the occasional treat thrown in…and not gain an ounce? Sign me up. Oh to be able to eat all day long, whatever I wanted and not be able to eat enough to put on weight because my metabolism is so fast and trying to keep up with my high energy levels. But yet kids sit there avoiding their food only to play or refuse what is put in front of them.

3)      Laundry …the days of your clothes magically appearing cleaned, folded, or hung up a day or two after you throw them into the laundry hamper. It was mystifying, almost like a laundry fairy lives with you. As a child you never really thought about the fact that you always had clothes to wear. You opened your closet and there they were, just waiting to be worn. But now as an adult, my laundry room is my “special room”. You know how men have a “man cave”? Well so do I…and it has a wonderful hum and vibration 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is quite pacifying.

4)      Bath time…Jackpot! To walk into your bath room, with a drawn bath, filled with bubbles, toys, and nice warm water and the scent of lavender to calm me down for the evening before I curl up in bed. Who wouldn’t want that? Well, apparently kids! It is a battle every night to make them realize that they have to get the dirt off their faces and from between their toes. Now, as an adult I am just lucky if I can sneak away for 10 minutes to shower in peace and quiet without an audience.

5)      The Stroller… it is a constant battle to get kids to stay in their strollers. They are always climbing out, or crying because you have strapped them in with a five-point harness for safety. If I had only known then…I would have been cruising around, looking at the giraffes at the zoo, or taking in the sights at Disney World, or even enjoying people watching at the mall…all chill-like with my bottle in one hand and a rattle in the other. But now, I am behind that stroller, with nine bags strapped to me and struggling to push it over the rocky streets or up the sixty degree incline. Man I would love to put my feet up, be pushed around, and maybe sip on a very dirty martini in my stroller, today.

6)      The hip…again, what is with always wanting to get down and walk? I would love to be carried around on someone’s hip all day long. At a higher height, able to see everything, and not needing to exert any form of energy. But now I am the one carrying the 45 pounds on my hip, and I am pretty sure that after three kids one hip is forcibly higher than the other one; either that or my other leg is shorter.

7)      The Bag…they see it, they know it, but they have no idea how much effort is put into the “mom bag”. They know all their favorite snacks, books, trucks, dolls, and toys are in there. They also know if they fall there are Band-Aids, Neosporin inside, plus wipes and diapers when needed. What they don’t know is that it weighs about 25 pounds and has created a dent in our shoulders. I would love for someone to have all my needs on hand in a cute monogrammed bag, like headphones for silence, or a romantic novel, or yet again, a martini shaker, so I can have a cocktail whenever I desired.

Kids these days (well kids of any day) just don’t know how great they have it. If I had only know then, not necessarily any wisdom that needed to be imparted on me, but just the knowledge of knowing how to chill and enjoy life…toddler-hood would have been awesome, and there would have been none of this “terrible two’s” stuff.