COVID-19

Dear child: Forgive me for being impatient with you in this scary and stressful time

In a matter of days, our lives have turned upside down like those rollercoasters you’ve dreamed about riding this summer. Your sports activities, spring musical program, and school have all been closed. Your playdates and outings are being withheld to ensure your safety on lockdown. 

When you first heard the news, you yelled and cried out to me, “Why, Mom? Why?”

I felt the same as you. 

I’ve lost my temper and unstable emotions have got the best of me. I’ve forgotten you’re just a child and don’t see the world as adults do. You just need my love and care right now – not my harshness and anger over things I can’t control.

I’m trying my best to keep our home a place of calm, but sometimes it feels more like a war zone. The world is in crisis, and lots of mommies and daddies are in survival mode too. 

You’ve seen me blow up and shed tears on my pillow. I’ve seen the tears you’ve cried and concerns at bedtime when darkness settles in. I hear your complaints for wanting your friends and missing your teachers at school. I know your need for routine and structure, and I’m trying my absolute best. 

We’ve never gone through a worldwide pandemic together. I don’t know how to feel about it all. But I know I have to take responsibility for my actions and how I respond. I have to be willing to learn, adjust, process, grieve, and find our new normal.

Please forgive me for not being more patient, loving, and gentle with your spirit. My words have been reckless, not uplifting. Anxiety has filled my soul. I need to focus more on the issues going on in your little heart, instead of focusing on panic and fear.

I’m amazed at how incredibly strong and resilient you are in this time. You inspire me and have given me a lot to laugh about and be thankful for. Thank you for having grace on me.

At the end of the day when you’re tucked in bed, I watch you peacefully sleeping and I’m so grateful God gave me you. We’re together and that’s the greatest blessing of all.

I love you,

Mom

*** A special thanks to TODAY Parents, Love What Matters, and Her View from Home for sharing this piece on your platforms.

Dear kids: We’ll look back on these days and miss them

Dear kids,

We’re driving each other crazy and loving each other like crazy. While we have no known end date to this quarantine, I’m pretty sure we’ll look back on this time and miss it. 

We’ll miss sleeping in and staying in our PJs, working on your chromebooks on the couch, zoom calls with your teacher, playing old fashioned games, enjoying dance parties, playing Nintendo Switch, taking walks as a family with the dog, baking 5 batches of cookies in a day, Facetiming your family and friends, and really having nothing to do or anywhere to go.

We’ll miss not having a schedule filled with activities, school functions, demands, responsibilities, doctor appointments, and more. We’ll miss the quantity of time together. I know we will even if we’re not thinking about it now.

It’s not that we didn’t do all those special things before. We’ve always valued our family time. But now more than ever we have to be together. It’s the memories we’re making.

I couldn’t believe the other day when I saw how much you all have grown – seeing your growth from the beginning of the year in our photos on iCloud. My draw dropped. In this time, you’ll go up a pant size, maybe two. Lose more of those wiggly teeth and tell me you need new shoes. You’ll eat me out of the house like you always do.

During this time, you’ll mature even more. It will go fast– it always does. Even though the days are long, the years fly by.

So, until then, I’ll keep documenting our days. Praying for sanity. And trying not to take all God has given for granted. I’ll try to cherish these moments as much as I can. 

When the house is empty one day, I know I’ll give anything to go back to the days when your fingerprints were all over the front glass door, the floors were sticky and messy, and your presence was right within my reach and I could control where you were. 

These coming weeks and months will go down in history, and in the memory books of our family. Let’s keep persevering through this pandemic and savoring this time together. 

I love you,

Mom

Samantha Krieger is a pastor’s wife and mom to 4. She is the author of Quiet Time: A 30-day Devotional Retreat for Moms in the Trenches. Her writing appears regularly on Her View From Home, TODAY Parenting, and For the Family. Connect with her on Instagramand Facebook.


Switch to desktop version