World Of Tourism

Ask any parent and they'll tell you the same thing, it's worth it. The dark moments of sleepless nights, financial insecurities and the not so serious but still extremely annoying sticky chocolate stains are overshadowed by laughs that originate from the stomach, the word DADA being screamed as they launch themselves into their blow up pool and the ecstatic look on their faces as you open a much anticipated chocolate, which of course brings you back to the not so serious but still extremely annoying sticky chocolate stains. It's a cycle.

The amusing thing is that as parents we love to be the experts, but the truth is that we are constantly learning and adapting. As much as we are the teachers of life, we could learn a thing or two from them. A prime example is time. While rushing one morning to prepare myself as well as my one year old for school, I fumbled over bags as I filled them with the necessities, tripped over a Barney Teddy Bear, ran to stop her from emptying the cat's food bowl and just managed to get us both outside and looking semi decent. My main objective was to get us to the car and get us moving as quickly as possible but as we walked she stopped to look at a flower. By this stage my patience levels had dwindled and as I was about to shout "Come on, let's go" I stopped to see her smelling a daisy with an incomplete toothy grin. It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase stop and smell the roses. We took a full five minutes to enjoy the flower vibe and my day was better for it.

We also learn the importance of just being silly. Ive lost count on how many times an adult has walked past me as I am pulling a funny face or making a funny sound. I've even been caught doing the chicken dance and I've never laughed as hard as that day. It's about entertainment for them and the more you make yourself look like a dork the better and the funnier.

When you are in a relationship with a loving partner learning the ways of parenting together, it makes it even more unique and special. As the two of you leopard crawl out of your child's room together after spending the last half an hour trying to get them to sleep, you'll laugh, in fact, you'll snigger silently as you try and get to the couch. An unspoken rivalry will form when your child says their first word, one person praying for DADA and the other for MAMA. And when it happens and if the moment favors you, you'll find yourself screaming, "Yes!!! HAHA!! I'm the favorite!" and doing a glorious victory dance, while looking like a complete fool.

As hard as it can be, raising a child has so many joys that will put millions of smiles on your face as time goes by. Someone asked me "Can you imagine your life without her?" and my answer was an unequivocal "Absolutely not!".

The sun is shining, the weather is sweet and I'm smiling. To be honest, it's more like a stupid grin. For some unknown reason, today feels good. I think this was the first morning in a string of mornings that I found myself smiling as I unlocked my car door. Then, to my delight, I heard on the radio that it's International Smile Day. What a coincidence! It feels like I'm strolling through a rerun of the Brady Bunch, smiling people and good, wholesome times. Maybe even something out of the Love Boat. Everyday should be International Smile Day.

Thinking of this day, I realized that people don't smile enough, laugh enough, play enough. The other night while brushing my teeth, my partner made a funny gesture, let's just say it was clean but not appropriate blog material and I almost fell over backwards laughing. I was clutching my stomach in sheer hilariousness (if there is such a word) and I couldn't honestly remember the last time I had laughed so hard. It felt amazing. Isn't it incredible what a gut wrenching laugh can do? What I don't understand is why we don't do it more often?

I was driving in my car this morning feeling like I could conquer the world and a car pulled up next to me at the robot. As I sat humming a tune and smiling form ear to ear, I looked over at a little boy sitting in the backseat, he looked a little miserable and sleepy. I remember those mornings on the way to school, the last thing I felt like doing was smiling. So as he turned to look at me with his blank stare and his chubby cheeks, I started dancing ad pulling faces at him, I was acting like a mad person. I started laughing and I could see a small smile of shock and maybe even a hint of amusement cross his face.

As I drove away, I found myself still having a good laugh for a few minutes. I like to think that he laughed too, even if it was at a crazy lady. Laughter truly is the best medicine and I will be smiling and laughing the whole of today and who knows maybe even tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that..........Let's hope happiness and cheer spreads like a wild fire, one small step that won't change the world but it's a start and that's all we really need. Keep smiling!