01/05/2026
May Already? A Reflection on Time, Parenting & Growing Through Life
I honestly cannot believe we are already in the month of May 2026.
The older I get, the more I find myself saying things like, “Where has that time gone?” — but genuinely feeling it deep in my chest afterwards. The years seem to move faster and faster.
Weeks blur into months, and suddenly seasons have changed before I feel I’ve properly noticed them.
Life feels busy in a good way.
Work is full.
There are adventures.
There are laughs, plans, classes, conversations and memories being made all the time.
And I am grateful for that.
But if I am completely honest, there is also something about the speed of time that scares me a little.
Lately I find myself looking at my children differently. Not in sadness exactly, but maybe in a kind of quiet mourning for moments I did not fully realise were disappearing whilst I was living them.
I think that is part of parenthood nobody really prepares you for.
You are so busy trying to keep everything together — work, routines, finances, school runs, meals, worries, responsibilities — that sometimes you do not realise certain phases are ending whilst you are in them.
One day they need you for everything.
Then suddenly they don’t.
One day they climb into your bed in the middle of the night.
Then one day they stop.
One day they want you at every school event.
Then one day your son wants independence, or your daughter does not want to go at all.
And that is exactly how it should be.
But it still catches me off guard.
Sometimes I think ahead to the future and imagine my children as adults with lives, homes and maybe even families of their own. I would like to be called “Nanna” one day.
Not yet though. Definitely not yet.
My children are far too young, and I am in no rush whatsoever to speed life along. But if I am lucky enough to become a grandparent one day, the thought genuinely fills me with excitement.
Not because I want to relive parenting, but because I look forward to meeting my children as adults.
Fully grown people.
People with their own thoughts, stories, humour, struggles and strengths.
Because parenting teenagers can be hard. Beautiful, but hard.
There are hormones, disagreements, slammed doors, messy bedrooms and frustrations. There are definitely moments when I get it wrong too. Real family life is not an Instagram quote. It is complicated and emotional and exhausting sometimes.
For my son, we also had the added pressure of school never really feeling like the right environment for him to flourish.
And if I am honest, this is where I know I played my own part too.
I think, like many parents, I spent time trying to help him “fit” into a system that perhaps was never built for him in the first place.
Trying to shape a piece of wood by repeatedly forcing it into the wrong mould and wondering why both the system and the child end up damaged in the process.
As parents, we often act from fear. Fear that our children will struggle. Fear they will be judged. Fear they will not succeed. Fear we are somehow failing them.
Sometimes that fear makes us push when we should pause.
Sometimes it makes us correct when we should listen.
I know I have not got everything right.
But what I hope my children know — truly know — is that I have always tried my best.
And I also hope they know that I am willing to admit when I am wrong.
I think one of the most important things we can do as parents is apologise. Not because it weakens our authority, but because it teaches accountability, humanity and emotional honesty.
None of us are perfect.
We are all just humans raising humans whilst trying to understand ourselves at the same time.
So maybe this May, instead of rushing through another month, I want to slow down a little more. To notice things properly. To make memories consciously instead of accidentally.
To appreciate where life is right now without constantly racing towards the next thing.
Because time does move quickly.
Far too quickly sometimes.
But maybe the answer is not to fear that.
Maybe the answer is simply to be present enough to really live it. 🌿
