I had a plan to write this beautiful post about what I call in my head the “In-between moments”. Because really life is not made up of big events, life IS the in-between moments. And so I started writing it but got nowhere. I got nowhere because I would start writing about my latest precious ‘in-between moment’ and then my mind would go to the moment right after that said beautiful moment. The moment where I usually, often really, have to walk away.

It is the moment where, if you don’t walk away you might scream. Or you might start spewing a string of never to be repeated swear words. You might even chew through the nearest thing – laptop, bath tub, a soft toy. How you walk away is not important – some do it grinding their teeth whilst uttering a low guttural sound. Others calmly turn around and walk away fast. Some run. My style is to walk briskly towards my wine. Whenever my husband has to babysit the two little people by himself I give him this advice. It is my best advice to any parent. Just walk away.

Let me give you an example. Yesterday I experienced one of those beautiful moments; Bailey was standing next to me on the couch kind of singing softly and swaying while I would feed her a spoon of yoghurt and she then would pretend to feed me a spoon of yoghurt. It was incredibly messy but I got over that a long time ago. It was just too cute. Kai was lying on the other couch, minding his own business with the one and only beloved blankie-dummy combo. Suddenly Bailey slid off the couch and in one swift move that would make any undercover agent proud, she grabbed Kai’s dummy out of his mouth. This is an unforgivable sin. A spectacular tantrum followed and Kai kicked Bailey in the mouth (a natural reaction I think, I could see myself kicking someone in the mouth if they kept stealing the wine out of my hand). Bailey fell on the floor like a true drama queen; Kai won’t come second of course, and so performed his own drama on the couch. This is where you walk away. Walk towards the wine, take a sip, and take a deep breath. And then deal with the drama.

I try to store these moments that take place in between moments of walking away. Because this is what will sustain me one day when I have purple hair and a walker. And really I guess my point is this – we tend to live from milestone to milestone and from one big event to another; when they first sit, walk, talk. Their first day of school, first school play, graduation, engagement, getting married. And even though these events are grand, they are not what life is made up of. It is the in-between moments that will colour your day light blue or bright pink or sad grey. Savour every moment, even the nappies and the tantrums. But in between – walk away.