Okay, people. Last week I mentioned that I’d be giving away the gorgeous nest necklace I’m wearing in this photo.
Well, now’s your chance! It would be perfect for:
- you,
- a friend (Christmas? Birthday?)
- your wife (so guys, you’re not excluded from this exercise)
- your mom (again, guys)
This is a hand-spun little work of art from Pammy’s Attic, whose website (www.pammysattic.net) just went live with all sorts of treasures to check out for Christmas presents. The artist takes old recipes, old music – whatever screams nostalgia – and whips up these sweet shadow box pendants around a wire nest and three little eggs tucked inside. It’s the perfect piece of wearable art for the stylish lady-friend in your life.
Here’s how to get the booty: Comment on this post by midnight Wednesday, November 4th with the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do as a parent (mom or dad), or the hardest thing you’ve ever had to witness a parent do. Be sure to include your email address and blog address, if you have one. Jake and I will pick the best comment and announce the winner on November 6th. Remember, creativity counts!
(This giveaway is running in tandem with a giveaway of another of these necklaces on Pammy’s Attic’s blog, so you actually have TWO chances to win. Head on over to her blog to see how.)
Good luck, and happy commenting!
I am Jaime, wife to Jacob. We are the smitten, stupefied, sometimes scared silly parents of a precious boy nicknamed Seabass and a darling girl nicknamed Sweet Chuck.
Higher Highs, Lower Lows 
Easy.
When London hit his first birthday, he started to develop a case of asthma. At first it didn’t seem like a huge deal. Then came his first cold. That cold rapidly turned into a severe case of pneumonia. Never have I felt more helpless then watching my little boy struggle for breath. I rushed him to the ER where he spent the next 5 hours being poked and prodded. The nurse finally left the room for a bit and London looked up at me, tears in his eyes, and simply said ” no more momma”.
Crushing. Knowing that they were coming back for more in a few minutes. Holding down my son while they tested him for various things, the whole time he is begging me to save him.
Hardest thing I have ever had to do.
And I’ve had to do it every winter for three years.
Parenting ain’t for the weak!
The hardest thing was finding out that Enzo had a stroke in utero. I blamed myself, that I must have done something wrong during the pregnancy. (Which clearly was not the case, but still Mommy guilt is great for that) He had to have a MRI in order to make sure that it was not a tumor that caused the stroke. Scary! He was six months old and I could NOT nurse him from midnight until after his MRI, in the morning 8:00 am. How do you explain to a baby they can’t get comfort from their momma. Then the doctors said I could be with him as they put him under general anesthesia. Poor guy, as they put the mask over his face the gas had a banana smell, he was trying to eat the gas, he was so hungry. I sat there helpless and then they dismissed me. We sat in the waiting room for what seemed to be hours but was probably only one.
Then I heard him, I heard his cry in the recovery room, my heart skipped a beat waiting for the nurses to come and get me.
When I held him and nursed him I knew we were in for a roller coaster of a ride with this one. Praise God there was no tumor, just a lesion on his right side of his brain causing 10% effected hemi-paresis cerebral palsy on his left side. It is hard seeing him not keep up with other kids as much and there are hard days but I would not change any of it for the world he is amazing! Micah 6:8
My youngest child Micah was in a near-fatal auto accident very shortly after his 21st birthday. He had been medivacked to a shock trauma center about two hours from me. The call came at 2:30AM from my ex. I was alone in my house. For a couple hours we sat in an empty hallway, with no word on whether my son was still alive. Those hours, combined with the two hours it took to get there, and later, his two days on life support, were an eternity. Every ounce of love and healing energy and prayers to the universe I had in me were directed to him. It was all I had to give. On the third day, standing alone outside the family waiting room for patients on life support, I witnesses something inexplicable that I interpreted as a message that Micah would survive. He did. To this day, he is my miracle boy.
So I definitely thought I had this in the bag til I read the first two posts! Any parent who has had a sick child learn quickly just how strong they are!
The hardest thing I have ever had to do was watch my son Luke fight for his life when he was just 9 months old. Luke fell and conked his head while learning to walk like every little one does 100 times. This time though a vein in his brain caught against the jagged bone of his soft spot and tore. He was flown to childrens hospital and was in a coma for 2 weeks. For the first 11 days we were told that he wouldn’t live and we needed to decide how long we wanted to wait it out. I wasn’t allowed to hold him for 11 days because any movement would increase the pressure on his brain. On Mothers Day 2009 Luke opened his eyes for us much to the doctors surprise! And 3 weeks after that we got to take him home!
Today I sit in Luke’s hospital room writing this comment as wait for his 6th surgery in the last 16 months and I guess te second hardest part is knowing I can’t protect him from the medical issues he will have for the rest of his life or how being otherwise abled will leave him open to the cruelties of teasing and kids who don’t know any better. But he is also my biggest joy and his little personality and smile makes anyone who knows him love him
I am neither a mom nor someone who has watched a mom do a hard thing in the same way the previous posters have had to do hard things, but I’m going for creativity points here. The hardest thing I have ever done as a stand-in-mom (i.e., babysitter) is take two toddlers and a baby to a public restroom. 🙂
The whole story is here: http://jeninslo.blogspot.com/2008/09/lessons-in-potty-training.html
Gorgeous! Thanks for the gift idea . . . you just made things a lot easier for my husband this Christmas.
Ok, so I don’t have complete heart wrenching stories like the others, but the hardest thing that I have to do as a parent was cleaning out a bath full of squidgy poo that my daughter decided to make while getting cleaned. Here is the full story: http://aaronandsheri.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/one-of-those-days/
http://www.aaronandsheri.wordpress.com – Mommy blogging about things most people are too embarrassed to blog about.
The hardest thing so far has been admitting that this is so much harder to be good at then I thought:)that even though I have done some wordly tough things nothing compares. that mind over matter really works and that every choice I make affects him and not just me. Great respect for great parents because sometimes it hard just to be a good parent!
Anytime your child is sick or needs medical attention of any kind is heart-wrenching. After all, it is a job of a mother to protect her children, so when something requiring medical intervention is needed, a mother just feels helpless.
Knowing that nothing can top my stories when my kids needed to go to the hospital, I will share with you another “hardest time” moment.
When I dropped oldest son at Kindergarten for the first time. I don’t know who was more anxious, him or me. Read all about it here: http://4mothers1blog.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/great-reads-the-kissing-hand-by-audrey-penn/
I’ve only been a parent for all of two seconds and when I look back at things I thought were hard they just seem like life now. I think I would have to go with fighting to keep breastfeeding after six weeks of undiagnosed thrush and then ten weeks of pumping. It was worth it though because at thirteen months, we are still nursing a couple times a day and I know it was best for him in his first year.
I can’t believe you weren’t getting many comments for that beautiful necklace, I liked it from the beginning but couldn’t come up with anything good to say about my crazy mommy moments.
I have to say it was some time last week when I was pumping milk, the baby was screaming in her vibrating chair and my 3.5 year old was standing in front of me naked sobbing because he had an accident and I couldn’t help him change clothes. Also, the dogs were jumping on the door to go outside. In normal circumstances I think someone would have just started sobbing themselves, but the situation was sooo beyond ridiculous especially because I was literally attached to this pump unable to help immediately I just started cracking up at the situation. Sometimes when it gets too crazy you have to laugh!
I can’t get caught up with my own hang-ups, fears, sensitivity, issues, anxiety, what I have accomplished, what I haven’t accomplished, what SHE will, or won’t, accomplish… For 32 years, my life was about me. Now my life is about my daughter, my family. My life is not my own anymore.
I have to drive safely now because my daughter needs me. I have to improve on my spiritual life because my daughter will benefit. I have to act better than I feel because my daughter needs me to be the adult.
I’m still afraid of the dark, but I tonight I have to brave through it, in case she’s afraid too.
IJWTS wow! Why can’t I think of thgins like that?
Oh, you just name it, with 4 kids and many years under my belt as a mom, you learn to take it as it comes to you. 6 week old first child had to have emergency surgery for pyloric stenosis, just about flattened me at the time but he is now a beautiful father of three who has been both mother and father of 3 gorgeous children who also love and adore him. child # 2 survived childhood only to develop cancer 18 months after birth of her first child. She also is a beautiful mother of 3, well and healthy. Child # 3 was born with a congenital birth defect in his skull and 2 surgeries later is perfect only to have a stroke at the age of 28,6 weeks after he was married. He too is alive, happy, and is a father to the most adorable eight year old. Child # 4 (our adopted daughter)has suffered with difficult emotional problems her whole life and yet she is a wonderful mother to her son and has made a life for herself. The point of my story is.. its life. You have no control. So enjoy what you have at this very moment with your children. Love them with all your heart. There will be another crisis down the road. It just all depends on how you deal with it.
Considering I’ve only been a parent 3.5 months now, nothing stands out besides the obvious basic stuff. Waking up in the middle of the night (for, oh, the last 3.5 months), feeling like a cow/pacifier, not eating CHEESE (my FAVORITE thing), etc etc. I suppose that’s the gist- basic self denial is the hardest thing I’ve had to do. However, all of this self denial pales in comparison to the hard things that are to come- can you imagine them going off to college?!?
The hardest thing I’ve had to do seems downright trivial compared to what other moms have gone through.
We were on vacation and Hayden was being a typical, tired 4 year old and he’d misbehaved the whole trip. The one discipline that I hadn’t tried was taking something away. He had this new dinosaur board game that I’d recently given him and I had to take it away from because he just wouldn’t shape up.
Oh, but it wasn’t just taking it away from him that was hard. It was the fact that I’d opened my mouth and said that I was going to leave it in the hotel room for another child that was so gut-wrenching, but I did it. I remember driving away with Hayden strapped in his booster seat, sobbing “Mommy, please, I want my dinosaur game. Please? I’ll be a good boy” that made me teary. Even now, I get a tad weepy. Over a board game, no less.
In short, I would say that following through with difficult discipline is the hardest thing I’ve had to do. Unfortunately, I have years ahead of me, but I know that making sure that Hayden grows up to be a kind, respectful man with a good moral compass is worth the heartache I have to go through.
He still remembers that board game, 4 years later.
My wee man is only 3mo old, so I’m sure the hardest is yet to come, but so far persevering through many breast feeding difficulties has been the hardest. My poor baby had trouble latching in the beginning, then my milk came in late, and then I had threatened mastitis and multiple clogged ducts. And then there was the thrush which was sosososooo painful and the cracking and soreness… I almost gave up at 2mo. But then I finally healed and it got easier. Now I’m so very glad I stuck with it. Motherhood is way harder than I ever imagined, but it’s also far exceeds the awesomeness I expected.