Rushing Along

So here we are racing along, the train rushing along the tracks just trying to get to the next stop on schedule. (What's the next stop? I can't even keep track anymore.) The conductor (that's me, the mom/conductor/co-pilot in this family of ours) thinks that everything's going just great. Every once in awhile there's a rock on the track that gets kicked up as we rush along and we have some minor discipline issue, or small meltdown, or whatever. But mostly things are fine, right? Then one of the kids says something that feels like a grenade tossed onto the tracks from out of nowhere. BAM! Screech to a halt! Derailed! Did he SERIOUSLY just say that? Did my son really just tell me, "Every day is a bad day." Fail. This is not what I ever imagined hearing from my child. He said some other stuff too, but I'm not going to write that here. My heart nearly stopped, or broke, it ached. I pulled the car over, climbed into the back seat and gave him a hug. How could I have NOT seen this coming? We're rushing along too fast. Its fun to drive fast but too fast and things start getting scary. Oh Arch, let's slow down and spend some moments together laughing. Let's stop trying to rush out the door to the next event. Let's stop pushing to get so much accomplished and let's just be silly together. Let's stop thinking about all the stuff you need to learn and just be kids. I wish I could tell you how much I hate homework, how it would be so much better to be playing than learning factors or spelling or punctuation. I wish I could tell you my struggles in this journey we're on and have you know we're in this together. You're not alone.