“Your Complaints About Your Baby Waking Up Early Is Another Mama’s Wish She Had a Reason to Get Out of Bed”: Mom Begs Parents to Cherish Every Moment With Their Child

Life as a parent can be painful, difficult, and exhausting. It competes with our natural human instincts to be self-serving and put “me first.”

The incessant whining for snacks, the bickering between siblings, and the 3am wake-up calls that pry open our heavy eyelids can all be annoying and “inconvenient” to say the least. God forbid we want two minutes to go to the bathroom alone and more than three hours of sleep a night.

But Tara Ann Michelle Goodney is challenging the complaints that are on the tips of so many parents’ tongues with a powerful post about the mamas who would kill to have their problem.

As the mother of a little cancer fighter, Tara Ann knows all too well that those moments that can be most frustrating to many should actually be treasured—for they signify the marks of a healthy, thriving child.

Tara Ann’s brief but powerful Facebook message posted alongside a raw picture of her baby boy on November 16th, quickly went viral:

“Your complaints about your baby tossing in bed, is another mama’s wish that her baby was still laying next to her.

Your complaints about your baby waking up early is another mama’s wish that she had a reason to get out of bed.

While you’re passing your baby to anyone willing to hold them, another mama is begging to hold hers.

Remember to hold your baby extra tight, because some of us mamas can’t.”
#Daltonstrong #cancersucks

Tara Ann’s heart-throbbing words echo those of Natalie Morgan, another mama who lost her baby too soon:

“But please just remember, while you’re awake at 3am because you have a baby in your arms keeping you up that late, I’m up at 3am because I don’t. And I would give anything in this world to have a baby spitting up on me, being colicky for all hours of the day and night, screaming, not letting me put her down, cracking my nipples from breastfeeding, keeping me up all night.’

…All I ask of you is when you have your dark moments with your baby – when you’re at your wits’ end and feel like you can’t go on anymore when you’re only getting an hour or two of sleep a night – instead of begging your child to go to sleep and being swallowed up in your frustration and exhaustion, find the tiniest bit of strength within you to keep going, and say a prayer of gratitude for your child, as difficult as it may be in that moment.”

In the moments when the struggles associated with raising tiny humans get the best of us, I pray we take a moment to remember the profoundly true words of Tara Ann and Natalie, mamas who would gladly take on our light and momentary burdens.

Share their message with the mamas in your life who need this powerful reminder today. ♥