I sit at my desk, laptop open. A blank page flickers on the screen. I position my hands above the keyboard. And the baby cries. Or my son rushes in asking for a snack. Or my older daughter needs help hot gluing a craft together. And so ends my brief escape into writing.
Despite the many interruptions they bring, I don't begrudge my children for needing me when I would rather be writing. They are far more important than anything I could hope to put onto paper.
But that doesn't mean I give up my love of creating and writing and shove it aside until the children are out of the house. Even the small, short moments I carve out to write my blog posts are special to me and needed. Some people unwind by watching a movie or running. I turn to words.
Just about any friend I've had for any length of time knows I'm passionate about books - both reading them and writing them. As a child, after reading every Nancy Drew the library had, I wrote my own mystery-style books. When I felt sad I tried my hand at poetry. I have journals from high school through today chronicling my life. I received a journalism degree in college and wrote for the school newspaper. Clearly, written words and thoughts and stories have always been a part of my life.
Having children didn't change that dream. It just modified it. I have to be intentional about the time I get to write. I'm scribbling this post on my phone while my youngest naps in my arms. I've written scenes for novels in doctor’s office waiting rooms. I've dictated ideas to a phone app while walking through the neighborhood with my kids in tow.
And I've realized that just because something looks different than you imagined it doesn't mean it can't happen. I always pictured myself at a desk typing away for hours at a time. Maybe sometime life will look like that. But for now it's a baby on the floor of my office, two kids running in and out asking questions, needing help. It's writing pieces of the same post or chapter over three different days. And sometimes it's not getting any writing done for a whole week.
But I wouldn't change this version of my writing life. In the midst of frustrations, my children are a source of love, joy, and laughter. So my writing creeps on but my life is all the deeper for the interruptions.
If you want to see how I juggle my writing with three young kids, click on my Instagram handle at the bottom of the page and search for #mywritermomlife
Photo by jeshoots.com on Unsplash