Snails on Jetliners

I have the perfect analogy for parenthood —

We are snails on jetliners.

At full sprint, a garden snail moves about 1.3 centimeters per second. It would take this little mollusk two whole hours to cross a football field.

Slow, slow, slow.

Parenting can feel like that.

One day is pretty much equivalent to eighty million eternities when raising children. We have been afforded life’s most beautiful responsibility, but it is a daily (if not minute-to-minute) test of endurance and patience. I am convinced that early-onset sleep deprivation sets the pace, and we just creep along from there. There is nothing expeditious about toddler tantrums or teenage attitudes or infinity loads of laundry or our names being shouted on a continuous loop. And I don’t know about you, but I might as well reserve half a day for the sheer insanity of getting three youngsters out of a house and into a car. The simplest things take for-freaking-ever, and Monster Mom never fails to make a guest appearance. Heaven, help me.

It goes on like this, and gradually our trail of gastropod slime grows longer. Without a clear point of realization, diaper changes become dance recitals become drivers licenses become diplomas. How does this even happen?!

We are snails on jetliners.

At cruising speed, a Boeing 737 aircraft moves about 583 miles per hour. It would take this giant plane only five hours to journey across four time zones, from sea to shining sea.

Fast, fast, fast.

Parenting can feel like that.

Eighteen years is pretty much equivalent to a tenth of a second when raising children. We blink and BAM, our squishy newborn babies have morphed into full-fledged adult people. We are no longer the axis around which their world spins, and while our brains know it is the natural order of things, our hearts pine for days gone by. I am just eight years into my parenting gig, but I am already feeling the g-force. Our oldest daughter currently smiles with two missing front teeth which seems utterly impossible considering she was six months old and drooling on a frozen teething toy only five minutes ago – and she will inevitably be smiling in her senior pictures five minutes from now. The quickness is mystifying.

Yes, we are snails on jetliners.

Slow days. Fast years. The most wild, worthwhile voyage.

And riddle me this…

What do snails, jetliners, and parenthood have in common?

None of them can go backwards.

So let’s forge ahead with grit and gratitude. Let’s make the most of each fleeting season. Let’s share wisdom with parents in the thick of the trenches… and encouragement with those in the emptiness of the nest. Let’s show up for grieving moms and dads who ache for their babies.

Let’s soak in the joy that is our children… every single inch of the way.