Birthdays.

They’re different when you’re a parent.

Gone are the birthdays of your pre-kid past which included

sleeping in,
gettin sloshed,
and doing nothing unless it was something that you wanted to do.

Hello to the birthdays of your parenting present which include

gettin up at ass crack of dawn to run or do yoga to get that growing ass of yours back smaller,

packing lunches and filling water bottles,

waking the kids and ensuring the shower/bath they take involves actual washing,

feeding those monkeys and driving them to school on a wish and prayer that today is not the day the school nurse calls ‘cause little Johnny has a headache.

Speaking of headaches you’ll avoid one for now, birthday girl, and gleeful ignore your household responsibilities, just so you can have one tomorrow when you do have tackle what you neglected today.

Maybe you’ll treat yourself to a Bloody Mary, ‘cause Mary was a mama just like you and on your birthday, who better to emulate.

OR perhaps you’ll have a some wine with lunch, but only if the hubs is off of work to take over afternoon transportation duties.

Then it’s school pick up and for good measure and a jolly “why not?!,” there’s overlapping kid activities that don’t end until well around the tiniest tyke’s usual bedtime.

But it won’t be the usual bedtime today —

‘CAUSE MAMA IS STILL GONNA CELEBRATE!

We’re gonna have a LATE dinner and maybe make an even later second stop for fancy cocktail and absolutely more than one dessert.

We’ll go home.

We’ll all stay up later watching our favorites shows.

And I’ll wake up on Saturday,

older,

heavier,

and still incredibly happy and ridiculously grateful.

Birthdays when you’re a parent may
look and feel a whole lot different,

but they mean a whole hell of a lot more —

they mean I get another trip around the sun with those that light up my life and give it the greatest purpose.