Corsicana — I recently read a very profound Blog; it was funny and very true. It was in the Huffington Post and it was about seizing the day as a parent and how you should enjoy every single moment of being a parent.

It basically highlighted the fact that when a mother is out in public with her children, she is always approached by older women telling her to enjoy every moment, Carpe Diem. And although I do agree with that, I personally try to make lemonade out of lemons; the fact of the matter is you just can’t.

I pulled a very informative, yet insightful quote from this particular article that I am referencing.

“I think parenting young children (and old ones, I've heard) is a little like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because they've heard there's magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it's hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. Even though any climber will tell you that most of the climb is treacherous, exhausting, killer. That they literally cried most of the way up.”  (Glennon Melton, Huffington Post, Blog Writer)

I do agree with her point that maybe the ladies that approach her and tell her to enjoy every single moment of each and every day; maybe that advice could be a little more wide spread to the fact that parents should enjoy parenting as a whole, maybe not focus on every single solitary moment. Because like anything in life there are going to be ups and downs, and albeit, that we would like to say we are “Pollyanna” we just aren’t; so that grin can’t stay plastered on our face every moment of every day.

And I think if we can admit that we are all just human, that it is okay to be unhappy, or frustrated about some things in life; that doesn’t make us any less of a person, a parent, a mate, or a friend. There are just those times in life that aren’t perfect.

But, as I mentioned, I do realize that these times will pass me by, and one day I will look back and wonder where all the dirty diapers went, and the bottles, and the sippy cups. So I guess I am in the minority when I say…I do CARPE DIEM parenting and parenthood. Because it is the hard times and messy times that link all the good times together and make them stand out in our memories, rather than the bad ones.

In fact, just the other day my two year old decided he was going to get behind “the wheel” of the grocery cart at and push it at Mach 3, not able to see anything in front of him, with my seven month old perched on top of the cart in his car seat, awaiting his doom like a dove on a wire in Texas during the month of September; nothing but a grim outcome. It was not a good scenario.

My oldest and I ran interference between all the shelves, other patrons, and the free standing display cases; but mainly it was the soup aisle I was most concerned about — I could just envision hundreds of soup cans rolling down the aisle and my two-year old continuing on with the baby in tow as if nothing happened.

Now there is a picture for you — a mother with her 9-year-old chasing a 2-year old and an unknowing infant up and down every aisle of Brookshire’s. The possibility of death or dismemberment of my infant, destruction of an entire supermarket, and the loss or flattening of toes belonging to myself and my oldest, was closer in our grasp than I would like to have imagined. But luckily everyone, including the soup aisle, came out unscathed.

But instead of losing my cool, my oldest and I were in stitches the entire grocery shopping trip. Watching this, well actually more chasing and holding on to the front of the cart for control, pint sized demon racing through the grocery store was quite the work-out and comedy of errors too.

And, even though I feared for their lives, all the other people around us were actually laughing. So you see, rearing kids is a job, no one said it would be easy. But you just have to enjoy the daily tasks at hand, and not take life too seriously. But also, don’t beat yourself up, if every day doesn’t come up smelling like roses; that doesn’t mean you haven’t enjoyed life or enjoyed your kids, it just means you lived it.

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Samantha Stroube-Daviss is a Daily Sun columnist. Her column appears on Sundays. She may be reached by e-mail at columnwriter98@hotmail.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this column? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com