Toothaches

At Aimee's soccer practice - with everyone in tow, as usual! - the Korean mom who has both a little girl on Aimee's team as well as a little boy on Drew's began talking with me as our boys played and we trailed our active toddlers. This was a nice change, because frankly, the other moms are rather clique-ish, and even if I wanted to try to force my way in, I have to spend all my time keeping little boys out of mischief instead. Last night, for instance, while I was enjoying having an actual conversation in between diverting Chase's attention from the soccer field (where he longs to play!) and playing basketball with Ryan (I am the "basket," so that he can dunk!), Ryan slipped away on a solo trek to visit the horses - not too far, but still farther than I would like a little one to travel alone. I found him happily chatting at a friendly horse who was endearingly poking his head under the fence. But I digress. In my conversation with the aforesaid mom, whose nationality I mention because it was interesting to hear her perspective on certain subjects. ("What is this 'homeschooling'? I think almost everyone in America homeschools..."), she asked me at one point if life was difficult with four children. I laughed. "Sometimes," I replied, and then she went on to say that one day she was complaining about how busy and tired she was (she has three children), when her husband said, "Haven't you seen that mom with four children? You should not be complaining!" So she said every time she thinks her life is hard, she thinks of me! Now, I don't think four is a very large number, neither do I think that moms should compare themselves to each other - C.S. Lewis said something very wise about "the toothache you have at this very minute" being "the worst pain in the world". It is, in short impossible to compare most situations, and every mother has her own unique set of joys and trials, but that being said, I still find myself looking at Courtney and her brood of seven, and thinking how I ought not to be such a wimp! Just before I met her, Courtney endured a year on her own, her husband in Cuba, with four children and one on the way. Pretty much all of our struggles pale in comparison, I have to admit! :-)