My initial reaction was harsh. “How in the world did this happen?”
But that girl of mine… Her response took my breath away. “I had some strawberries in my teeth and I just wanted to get them out. I kept calling for you to help me… but Mommy, you were too busy.”
My heart sank. I knelt down and hugged her. “You’re right, honey. Mommy was too busy. But I shouldn’t have been. I’m the one who is sorry.” We stood there and hugged a little while longer. “Come on, let’s clean this up together.”
So there we sat; mother and daughter, side by side, scrubbing away. She at the floor, but me, I was scrubbing away at my busy mama heart. And I knew in that moment that there was a lot that needed to be cleaned out.
For those of us who are the keepers of our homes, it’s a fine line between scratching things off our to-do list and constantly being available when the little people need us. I mean, we all have to have clean underwear, right? But the thing that my daughter taught me on the day of the blue toothpaste is to be available as Mommy first and list scratcher second. Because the last thing that I want my kids to call me is “too busy.”