Tara’s Takes
As we raise kids, we enter multiple stages. We have the newborn stage, the toddler stage, the school age, the preteen and the teenagers. Each stage comes with excitement and newly-unlocked fears. It also comes with stuff. By stuff I mean the things you end up carrying.
When you have your first child, it’s a shock the amount of stuff you carry when you leave the house. You’ve got the car seat, then the diaper bag, your purse and anything else. As the kids grow and you enter the toddler stage, you get to ditch carrying the car seat, but depending on how long you’re going, you’re adding in stuff to keep kids entertained. I called this the toy bag.
When the boys were little, it was a small Twins backpack filled with plastic dinosaurs, small trucks and excavator toys. Natalie’s bag usually had Barbies or whatever the popular small toys were at that time. If you had a toddler and a baby, you got to carry all this stuff.
Eventually, the kids started carrying more of their own stuff and the amount of stuff needed decreases. Soon, the entertainment bag becomes smaller or non-existent. For me, instead of carrying a bag of toys, I had one of the kids’ books in my purse or carrying their phone because they didn’t have pockets.
This also meant I carried a large purse as I usually was carrying wet wipes, Kleenex, some fruit snacks and other stuff in my bag.
As my kids became teenagers, my purse became smaller. Now my kids were the ones carrying multiple bags for school and sports and I was carrying less of their stuff. They also kept their phones a lot closer.
This past weekend, Ben, Natalie and I went to the cities for family weekend at the University of Minnesota. Brady met us at our hotel Friday night, and once we got checked in, we walked to Sushi Train for dinner. It’s a favorite spot of ours and although sushi isn’t Brady’s top choice, he always indulges his siblings’ love of sushi. He’s also the first to try the most unique dishes that come by on the conveyor belt. And his favorite sushi is still the peanut butter and jelly rolls.
Because this was a short walk from our hotel, I left my purse in the room and carried my phone with my debit card.
Saturday, we went to the Gophers football game. Brady and I had talked about security and I had checked into the bag policy ahead of time. I brought my clear bag with thinking I’d need to carry essentials like sunscreen for the day. Ben and Natalie both said we could just put the sunscreen on before we left the hotel and not carry it with. Spoiler alert, we forgot, and so did Brady, therefore we all got a nice September sunburn.
So off we went for our Saturday adventures, and other than the little cash in one pocket and my cellphone and cards in another, that was it. I didn’t carry a bag.
I brought my purse when we went to do some shopping and to dinner that evening. I didn’t really need to, I just felt like I should. Sunday was the same, no purse for the volleyball game.
I have entered a new stage as a mom. Now I’m trying to figure out if the decrease in bags and stuff you carry as a parent correlates to the amount your kids need? Now don’t get me wrong, I know the kids still need me and for more than just carrying their stuff, but it symbolizes a change.
They are taking care of their stuff and I’m taking care of mine. They are proactively figuring out what is really needed and what they want to carry.
And for me, I’m just carrying less.
I laughed as I wrote this because honesty, it’s not that deep. But it was a huge difference as we went from one place to another and jumped on the light rail to not have to make sure I had my purse, where it was or keeping it safe. It was freeing of sorts to just move with the same carefree attitude as the kids, even if it was only for one weekend.
