I was walking through the shopping mall today, and happened to see a sight that sent me down memory lane. A young woman stood at a local bakery, wolfing down a sandwich, every few moments glancing down at her baby sleeping peacefully in the pram. She seemed in a terrible hurry to finish her meal, and i guessed straight away that she was snatching a few moments to eat her lunch before baby woke up. New young mothers find it challenging to multi-task, and naturally so, since the baby occupies their every waking moment with constant demands. Watching the young girl struggling to finish her lunch in the few moments before the precious little one yawned and opened her eyes reminded me of all the snatched moments mothers have to grab when their off-spring are newborns.
Here is what the young mother does…
The moment baby sleeps, she rushes into the kitchen to prepare the evening’s meal, just so that when the husband returns home from a tiring day at work, there is something resembling dinner on the table.
The moment baby sleeps, she has a rushed shower (gone are the days of long, indulgent, soaking baths with bubbles floating gently up into the air), often getting into rumpled clothes that there is just no time any more to iron.
The moment baby sleeps, she sits down at the table to eat a solitary lunch, one ear eternally tuned in to check if baby is stirring in the bedroom.
The moment baby sleeps, she flies around the house, dusting and cleaning in manic haste. The dishes are washed at lightening speed and the washed clothes are thrown haphazardly over the clothes line.
The moment baby sleeps, she logs on quickly onto the internet, to send one-line emails to loved ones in far-off lands, assuring them she was well and would write whenever time permits (of course that seldom happens!)
The moment baby sleeps, she rests her own weary head next to the little one’s, hoping to catch forty winks before her exhausting routine begins once again.
Such rushed and hurried moments are what new motherhood is all about. Enjoy these moments, young mother. Some day years later as you walk through a crowded mall, you might see a young, perplexed mother wolfing down her lunch while her sleeping baby lies quietly in the pram and feel a gentle tug of sympathy as you remember your own ‘snatched moments’.