Parenting | The power of a hug.

This week has been a week of nursing my daughter.
I ended up catching her cold as well,
so while taking vitamin C,
"I do not have a cold,"
"I am living healthily,"
I am spending my time suggesting these things to myself.

School after the break was so tough for her
that we had a 10-minute hug time.
When she wants a hug this firmly,
I realize she must be truly exhausted,
so we had a nighttime tea time for the first time in a while.

Since we rarely have that lately,
Mom is happy ☺️

When I was spending time with my mother at my parents' house,
she suddenly said,
"I still regret that I didn't hug you and your siblings more when you were little.
Yuko, when your daughter asks you to hug her,
you must drop everything and hug her first."

My parents' home was a farm and we lived with my grandparents.
She had many roles other than being a mother,
so she tended to put her children last,
but perhaps she was relying on the children
to accept that as just the way things were.
She told me that she actually wanted to face her children more.

"Think of this as my last will and testament!
Even though I'm still alive lol"

Thanks to these words my mother gave me,
I have become able to abandon my housework
with a clear conscience whenever I sense my daughter is in a pinch.

Wrapped in the feeling that I have updated the charm of words
given to me by my mother, and her manual for motherhood.

"Drop everything and hug her first," which my mother taught me.
When my daughter grows up, I want to pass these words on
thinking of them as my last will and testament (even though I'm still alive lol),
while daydreaming about that,
I will go to sleep early tonight.

Everyone, please stay warm
and get some rest.