The World Doesn't Need You, Mama

We were at the beach a few weeks back and I was walking through the pool area of the condos we were staying at. For a rare moment, I didn't have any little ones in tow, so I was able to really take in the world around me as I headed for the sand. 

I heard a little voice from the pool exclaim, "Mommy!" So of course, as any mama would, out of instinct I turned my head in the direction of the tiny shrill. 

What I saw gutted me. 

A little girl who couldn't have been more than five or six years old, her face squished and distorted from her goggles, was trying desperately to get her mother's attention so she could show her the new trick she had learned. 

But her mother couldn't hear her over the phone in front of her face. 

Now listen, I want to stop here and say, who knows? This mama could very well have just been taking a well-deserved moment to herself. For all I know, she could have been tending to a family emergency or asking her husband to bring the sandwiches when he came down. At the end of the day, it was none of my business. 

But the moment pulled at my heart nonetheless. 

How many times had I been that mother? Sitting just inches from my babies, but my mind couldn't be further away. Missing precious nuggets that I'll never get back of the one childhood they get because Lisa from Facebook got a new car and I just had to read the comments. 

The image of the little goggled girl competing with technology for her mother's approval has stayed with me for months. I might even go as far as to say it's haunted me. 

And I'm thankful it has. 

There isn't a rewind button for life. If you miss it, it's gone. Lost in time. You can't look back on memories you never made. 

I can't help but wonder how much life going on around me I've missed mindlessly scouring unimportant pages of the internet. How many times have my babies wanted me to watch a new trick they'd learned or simply said, "I love you, mommy," but I was too busy buried in someone else business on Instagram to look up? How many of those missed moments could have been magical memories if I would've just looked up? 

I'm here to tell you (and remind myself of) this: the world does not need you. 

Caroline won't notice if you didn't view her story. Madison will never realize you didn't like her picture. What's going on in Olivia's life is sweet, I'm sure, but it's not worth missing the little life going on in front of you in real, precious time. Let the Snapchat streaks die (are we still doing that?). Your RSVP can wait, but life won't. 

The world doesn't need you, mama, but your home does. Your husband does. Your babies do. I promise you we won't get to the end of the line and say, "Man, I wish I would've spent one more second online shopping or flipping through some politician's Twitter feed." 

Someone once told me, "If we're lucky, we get 18 summers with our kiddos under the same roof." I'm only two and a half years into this mom gig, as my daddy would say, my babies are still under warranty, but it's been long enough for me to see how quickly it goes by. 

I blinked and teeth have replaced gummy smiles, wrinkly newborn knees are becoming chubby toddler legs, and baby babbles are starting to sound more and more like the English language. 

Whether they're two or four or thirteen or twenty, they'll be even bigger and older tomorrow. 

The world doesn't need us, mama. Look up.