This was from an email correspondence that started with Teri's mother, Pat Johnson, and ended with Teri writing a priceless (albeit irreverent) piece on parenting. If you want a glimpse into her perspective, and a great laugh, read on...

TERI WRITES:

Hey friends -

I was having a bit of a cranky morning, struggling with stuffy-nose babies and a messy house & bills & emails piled up, when I got to one of those "sweet-mommy-encouragement" notes. You know the drill... "just for today, I'm going to let everything go, and just pay attention to you, my precious child"...with all the sticky-sweet sentiments & guilt-trips to help us be better parents, right? Well for some reason I decided to create my own REALITY PARENTS version, based on true recent-events in the Miller household. Honestly, I got to laughing so hard about it all, I actually did some of that snort-cry-laughing thing that somehow makes everything in the world much brighter. Truly, God is so good, and I cherish this houseful of kiddos...but laughter is by far the best medicine for a cranky morning! I hope you enjoy it too...

Oh - for the best effect, just skim thru the original email I got first (below, in italics) and then my reality-reply below that -
Happy Parenting!!
Teri

> From: "Pat Johnson"
> Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:15:35 -0500
> To: "Teri Miller"

C. Sally Meyer 1999
for Dhylan

Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play.

Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles.

Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream & whine for the ice cream truck and I will buy you one if he comes by.

Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second-guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.

Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.

Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.

Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you.

Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry.

Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.

Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows.

Just for this evening when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.

I will think about the mothers And fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can't handle it anymore.

And when I kiss you good night I will hold you a little tighter and a little longer.
It is then, that I will thank God for you, and ask him for nothing, except one more day with you....


Nice...
But here is how mine would go:

Just for this morning, I'm going to leave those breakfast dishes in the sink and let the milk sit out longer than it should, so I can join you on the sunny porch, examining the sunflower seeds that are almost ready to harvest.

Just this morning I'm going to let the baby keep screaming so I can pay attention to your flips on the bar. When he barfs on the carpet, just for today, I'm going to let it congeal there.

Just for this morning I'm going to let the toddler leak that poop right out of his diaper so I can keep listening to the description of your lego car motored by magnets. When his crap actually smears all over the kitchen floor & stains his clothes & the entry rug, just for this morning, I'm going to simply step over the noxious mess.

Just for today I'm going to ignore the pile of bills, and not answer the phone when the gas company calls, and just keep piling up the trash because the trash man doesn't come when I don't take time to pay the bill...so that I can help you make that new peach satin dress for your doll, out of my jammy pants that we cut up because they got green gum all over them in the dryer, from the piece you left in your dear, sweet little pocket.

Just for today I'm going to leave the sticky spots of greenish-brownish goo on my desk & my mouse & stuck in between the alt & shift keys on my keyboard, which are there because of all the fun you had playing bookworm on my computer, even after I asked you ten times to finish your math lesson, while you were eating that delicious, home-made-with-love, mint-chocolate-chip-snow-ice-cream that we concocted together yesterday.

Just for this afternoon I'm going to thank God that no one has pneumonia or something worse, and I'm going to skip sucking the snot out of the baby's nose, although the pediatrician says that its practically child abuse to not use that tortuous-snot-sucking-infant-syringe-thing every hour any time the baby is teething or has the slightest runny nose even though it makes the baby cry so hard he produces about a kiloliter more mucous...so that I can instead share in the joy of your first experience with bathing your hands in the old-cool-whip-tupperware-container of black olives and eventually mashing almost every olive to pulp and finally getting upset about who-knows-what and dumping the entire plastic tub of black-olive-juice-goo down the front of your shirt and all over the kitchen floor.

Just for tonight I'm going to tell you "no" when you ask about going to Mc-blick-Donalds and getting over-priced happy-fat-meals with ridiculously-stupid-throw-em-away-in-36-hours happy-meal-toys, since I need to make those sacrifices so that I can be your ever-loving-stay-at-home-mommy, and I'll keep it simple by making ramen noodles for dinner and serving it on paper plates and scraping the whole-darn-mess-including-the-scorched-pot into the overflowing garbage can so that I can cuddle & read & talk & thank God for you & spend time with JUST you...and you...and you....and you...and you...till I finally keel over from calgon-take-me-away-exhaustion because there are JUST TOO MANY OF YOU AND I NEED TO TAKE A SHOWER AND BRUSH MY TEETH AND SCRAPE THAT IRRITATING WAD OF JELLY OFF THE SIDE OF THE CABINET AND JUST TAKE A BREAK TO USE THE TOILET AND MAKE THE TIME TO PAY THE BILLS SO THAT OUR ELECTRICITY DOESN'T GET CUT OFF...

And so,
Just for tonight,
I'm going to put on a Disney movie,
And pop 7 bags of popcorn,
And make an extra-thick-with-rice-cereal bottle for the baby,
And a sippy-cup full of extra-strength-sugar-bomb-juice for the toddler,
And tell you to sit your skipped-the-bath bottoms down & be quiet,
And watch the movie & take care of yourselves,
AND take care of your baby brothers,
And I'M going to take a bath...
A long, hot bath...
With candles...
And a glass of wine...
Or maybe ten...
So that TOMORROW,

We can have another lovely day!

Ahhhh.

Now THERE is the truth of it.
And that's all I have to say about that.

Teri