The Sunday Reset: for the mom who’s still in the thick of it
I hated the parenting-from-a-lawn-chair trend...until two weeks ago.
There’s a trend going around Instagram right now where parents are talking about how they’re parenting from a lawn chair. The kids are playing, the parents are sitting, everyone is alive, and no one is asking you to pretend to be a mermaid, a restaurant customer, or the mean stepsister in a very confusing version of Cinderella.
And honestly, I’ve been rolling my eyes at those posts.
Not because I don’t support lawn chair parenting. I deeply support lawn chair parenting. I aspire to lawn chair parent!! But as the mom of an only child who has also been a medical kid, I just never thought that would be me.
Emmie and I are deeply bonded. It is beautiful and precious, and it is also a lot. She has historically had very little interest in solo play. And yes, I know some people may want to say, “Well, that’s because you didn’t enforce it.” To which I lovingly say: if you have not spent months parenting in a hospital, please just pat my head and move on.
But two weeks ago, our family went on a lake trip. And you guys, I had the thought: I finally made it.
Not forever. Not in every category. Not in a “motherhood is easy now” kind of way. But for a moment, I felt it.
We played together in a way we both actually enjoyed. Not house, not Barbies, not me trying to remember the plotline she created three days ago and getting in trouble because I said the wrong voice for the wrong character. We played in the water. We jammed to music we both love. We took golf cart rides. We laughed. We joked. We splashed around. She loved the sand, the lake, the snacks, the whole thing.
And then? She found other kids to play with. And I sat in a beach chair next to my husband for thirty whole minutes.
Thirty. Unheard of!
The Instagram trend I had been rolling my eyes at a few weeks ago was suddenly my actual life, and I was thrilled.
This is your Sunday reminder that some seasons do shift. Maybe not all at once. Maybe not cleanly. Maybe not without new challenges waiting around the corner. I know there are harder decisions ahead, bigger emotions ahead, and more complicated parenting moments ahead. I have older nieces and nephews, so I am not under the illusion that the hardest parts of motherhood are behind me.
But for one little moment in motherhood, I felt like I had arrived.
And if you are in the thick of it right now, the baby years, the toddler years, the clingy years, the medically complicated years, the “why does every basic task require my entire nervous system?” years, I hope this encourages you. Not because you need to rush through this season, but because you may not always be quite as needed in the exact same way you are right now.
One day, you may look up and realize you are sitting in the chair. And it might feel like a tiny miracle.
If you are in the thick of something much heavier than a clingy kid, I hope you’ll listen to this week’s episode with Amber. She shares what it has looked like to walk through motherhood as a medical mom, release expectations, and find resilience when life looks nothing like the plan. It is honest, grounding, and such a gift for any mom carrying more than people can see.
So here’s your Sunday Reset: notice one place where something may be shifting. Maybe your kid played independently for five minutes. Maybe bedtime was 2% less chaotic. Maybe you asked for help faster than you used to. Maybe you’re not thriving, but you are recovering a little more quickly.
That counts. And if you are not in your lawn chair era yet, I am cheering for you from mine! For exactly thirty minutes, apparently. ☺️
Anna