The question has been coming up all through the pandemic. When reflecting on the “new normal”, what have you been missing from pre-covid life? And I’ll be saying the same things as so many others: meeting my people, hugging my people, being served in a restaurant, having me-time away from being mum (and lockdown teacher). These are the obvious things I’ve been missing, the tangible things. And then I had a 'uh-huh' moment followed by another mundane evening of getting my 6 year-old to wash himself.
Once in a while, I buy this really cheap shaving foam/bath-time fun foam for kids from B&M. I just so happened to have one in the cupboard, so I gave it to him so that I could get on with more mundane jobs. My boy has been told many times not to throw the foam outside the bath or at me. I like organised mess, not unexpected lashings of foam flying everywhere that I’d have to clean up after. Needless to say, my boy was so excited to have the foam during these many boring days, that he got a little overexcited.
Without a beat, he gave me his cheekiest grin and then walloped me with foam. For the first few minutes, I pretended to enjoy this imminent chaos while saying, “Not on the floor. Mummy will have to clean it!”
Suddenly, I was overcome with a ‘to hell with it’ moment. Not only did I catch the boy by surprise with a face full of foam, I called Daddy over and shoved a handful down his low-riding jeans. What the hell had gotten into me!? Foam everywhere!! Hubby called our daughter into the bathroom and surprised her with a hoody full. Preteen screams filled the house. Her long blond hair caked. Her hoody caked. The hallway caked, the bathroom caked! My boy howling with laughter. What would the neighbours think? I don’t care!! Where’s the container? I need more ammo!
Two minutes of mayhem!! Only two, but boy, how we all laughed. My heart was pounding with excitement. The sounds of all my family members squealing until there wasn’t a squirt of foam left. Yip, this is what I have been missing – spontaneity. Unplanned, immediate fun. It doesn’t matter in what shape it comes (and with the mess I still had to clean up) I needed to see my family laugh like this. I needed to laugh like this.
As I was wiping up the evidence, the penny dropped. Must encourage more ‘to hell with it’ moments, because every time I say 'no, too messy', I might be missing out on a nugget of sunshine in these mundane times.