It's Groundhog Day: the parent version

The first few months of having an infant feels like someone hit the repeat button on your life: the repetitive feeding; diaper changing; the many cups of cold coffee. In fact, just like in the movie you too may be in the same outfit repeatedly. And what new mother hasn’t inadvertently quoted Phil: “I feel like I am living the same day over and over again.“

But that groundhog day feeling doesn’t go away at the end of infanthood. How many times have I repeated the same phrases over and over again (most of them in an exasperated tone)? Fed them the exact same meal? Felt the same frantic feelings while trying to get three kids out the door in the morning? Read Goodnight Moon and the Corduroy Bear? And how many times have I heard the word ‘Why?’ or ‘You are not the boss of me’ or just the simple ‘Mama!’? I don’t even want to count how many times I have heard, “Mama, I’m done!” just so I can wipe a bum.

The movie trailer says: ”Life has a funny way of repeating itself,” and so does family life. But just like Phil, any good parent starts to appreciate the bright side of repeating the same act over and over again. Kids, like the characters in the movie, start fresh each day and so can you. They don’t hold a grudge when you have done something incredibly stupid the day before (or at least its buried so deep in their psyche that it will take a therapist’s crowbar to get it out.) Because kids (and parents) often repeat the same behavior over and over again, it gives you many opportunities to try out different methods, until you find something that works, or at least until the kids move on to something else.

Which means that when something doesn’t work the first time, you have at least 10,000 opportunities to make it work the next.