Making Memories: Real Life Tales

By The Red Tent, March 22, 2016

Hey there cute cats. I wanted to say that I loved the conversation which followed after The Future Is Female post. So many hilarious emails. My personal favourite: “I seriously thought my two had some behavioural disorder but I keep getting politely reminded that they are normal.” I laughed so much a bit of wine got spat out. Oh dear readers, friends, fellow troopers, — isn’t it so good to laugh about these things? And isn’t it so true that mostly, it’s the not suffering that hurts us but the feeling that we are alone in it? More honest motherhood posts scheduled for the future. You listen to me children: You may think you are the bosses of us what with your needs and your really insane, irrational behaviour but you WILL NOT take us decent women down. If you cannot understand that, we cannot help you. Okay, great, thanks, love you forever.

And so, because it’s a topsy turvy crazy old world out there, I say you gotta take your shots and sunshine and shits and giggles where you can (sorry for the swearing) and say a big old YES to breaks and adventures which renew you and burning money on LIFE and MAKING MEMORIES instead of happy little house deposits and mortgage repayments. (Me to a friend when we were out hauling my kids around somewhere: Oh my god. Where is the wine. Why do I bother. Honestly. Whose CHILDREN are these? Jenna: Rachel! You’re making memories! Think about the memories! YOU LOVE MAKING MEMORIES.)

I do. I do love making memories. Anyway, all this is to say, life is short, and when shots, sunshine, shits and giggles arise, you take them, then and there. We just got back from a week on Stradbroke Island with our friends, something we booked a little while back and bounced like sunshine on our calendar after some gruelling parenting weeks prior to leaving.

There were glittery parts for sure, wedged between the rough edges of real life moments with children and I took them both and weaved them gratefully into my “Making Memories” file. Because making memories is not all unicorns and rainbows. Making memories is the very real pulse of family, just brave and out in the world, up against all kinds of demonic forces like, say, how many minutes left until your children’s blood sugar levels drop and they are clawing out your insides in search of food, or, my personal favourite, how many tantrums will it take to change a parent’s mind? Let me save you the trouble honey and tell you: None. We meet these demonic forces with exhaustion and frustration, but eventually with humour, a lighter attitude, a ‘laugh or you’ll cry’ approach. They will one day be turned into stories, memories, and they’ll go something like: Remember that time we went to Straddie and Billy whinged and tantrumed for 5 days straight? And remember how Ella lost her shell and then her mind and how you went back to find it but then tripped over and cut your knee open and then Ella cried even more because of the blood everywhere? Remember how nice it was to watch Ella and Ava play together, to watch their friendship grip around them? Remember the rock pools? And our first wedding anniversary there?

Because this life of ours may not always be pretty or convenient or even enjoyable, but what it is, I hope, is full.

Making memories, Stradbroke style: