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I wrote this post a few years ago, Why I Still Carry My Kids, but it still is close to my heart, so I wanted to share it again today. A good reminder for myself & hopefully others. 🙂
I see you looking my way – when I hold my 7-year-old, my 5-year-old, my 3-year-old in my arms. I want to tell you something: my 9-year-old doesn’t fit there anymore… and that is why I still carry my kids.
It was last year that I carried him last. Last year that he was too tall to be carried. He is almost the same height as me now (I’m 4’11) and I remember when I tried to pick him up to carry him down the hall and I couldn’t do it. He has tall and heavier than I had remembered. When did this happen? When did he grow so much? Get so big? So old?
Last year, my seven-year-old got hurt on the soccer field and I went out and carried him back to the stands. My husband, who was also his coach said “Babe? Why did you carry him? He was OK to walk.”
I replied “Do you know how many of those people cared that I carried him? ONE. One person cared… Beau, our son.” He was the one that cared. He was the one that felt safe, loved, taken care of by his mom. It didn’t matter if the people in the stand cared because they weren’t my kids.
This year, Ethan, 5, was tired and when I told him that I would carry him, he said, “I think I’m too old now.” I told him that you will never be too old for your Mom to carry you. Too big, perhaps, but never too old.
When Allie, 3, wants to be carried, I pick her up. I joke with people that she lives on my hip. She won’t be this way for long. She is all about her mom right now and wants me to pick her up constantly. I love how she runs to greet me and jumps into my arms because I know that this ends. I know that they go from jumping into your arms to an “Oh, Hi, Mom.” in just a few short years. Yes, I’ll carry her… as long as she will let me.
I remember that in all of the things that we do, they end. My parents don’t tuck me into bed anymore, they don’t read me books anymore, they don’t tie my shoes anymore, they don’t help me ride a bike or read a book or do my homework. No… I’ve grown up. So will our kids. Soon, I won’t be doing those things for them. If I can just remember that this will not last long, I am more likely to enjoy it – every second of it.
Next week could be the last time that I carry Beau, our 7-year-old, up the stairs, or the last time that I carry Ethan, 5, to bed, or the last time that Allie, 3, wants to be carried through the grocery store.
Today isn’t that day… today I still carry my kids and I don’t care who knows it.
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I love this article! I carry my 4 and 1.5 year olds everywhere. My hubby has often said, you don’t HAVE to carry them… I know that, but I WANT to! 🙂 I love holding them, and like you said all too soon they will not want me to. 🙁
I loved this article. My children were carried until i could carry them no longer, i have the privilege now of being able to carry my grandchildren and share with them the closeness of two hearts beating in time, that i will remember forever, walks in the fields, by the ocean, at the zoo, carrying them and teaching them that love is like a warm hug , and in tough times may they remember the feel of what lovemeans and carry it on to the next generation.
My son will be 3 in 1 month. EVERY SINGLE TIME I pick him up I think of how it will be the last time SOMETIME. I will pick him up for as long as I’m able.
I just can say thank you for such a lovely reading, you definitely brouth me to tears…im a stay at home mom of 3 beautiful kids…a 3 1/2 year old princess, a 2 1/2 year old prince and a 2 month old little new prince!!! And i always carry them no matter what no matter who and no matter where i am….every time i have the chance to do it i do it because i know and think exactly the same way…one day they will grow up and wont be able to this anymore….but no matter what they will always are gonna be our babies….the most beautiful blessing God can give a human being…..
May God bless your beautiful family and may God give you guys a long, healthy, beautiful and loving
Thank you! Same to you.
Love this. I had to quit carrying my almost 9 year old not too long ago. He’s a light weight at barely 50 pounds but with arthritis in my spine and almost no cartilage in both hips it’s just impossible. I cried when the doctors told me that I absolutely couldn’t do it anymore. 🙁
I love this… I don’t have kids, but I have seven younger siblings… The 5 youngest are 9, 8, 7, 5 and 3 years old… I still lke to carry the youngest ones around… The three year old lives on my hip. Whenever I come home from University or from anywhere he runs to my arms and he hugs me and kisses me and asks me to hold him.. I love him, and I know it’s not forever, I used to do the same with the nine year old who now avoids my kisses and it’s war to ask for a hug, lol… I carry the 7 and 5 year olds when they’re tired, or when we’re walking on a busy street and they’re trying to tlk to me but I can’t hear them, I lift the up so we can chat… My mom scolds me, she says I’m spoiling them , she says it’s not ok to hold them so much, she says I shouldn’t lay down with them whenever they ask me, that I shouldn’t allow them to sleep in my bed with me… But it ends… And I love them so so so much…. I don’t know if I’m spoiling them, or they’re spoiling me… Thank you for writing this, I’m going to have to share this with her…
I still carry my kids around (5&3) when they need it and never thought a thing of it, probably because my friends carry their kids around as well. I didn’t realise people might have an opinion about whether I should or shouldn’t be!
I think about stuff like this article a lot when I hold my kids. They are too big to be carried, at 10, 9, and 9 (twins). It doesn’t seem that long ago when I easily rocked both twins at the same time. Now, there’s barely room for one. I carried them in when they fell asleep in the car… now I have to wake them up so they can walk in. Goes so fast. So now, I enjoy all the hugs and time we can spend together because I know before too long, they won’t need me quite so much.
…”you will never been to old for your Mom to carry you. Too big, perhaps, but never too old.”
Ahhhhh!!! so true! My parents carried me around until … well I don’t remember, I guess until I was too big to be carried. Not always but if I wanted they would, If I was tired after a long hike, they would. If I fell and need comfort, they would. Now I do it for my kids because even that my family was far from perfect I always felt protected by my parents, really believed they were superheroes and that nothing could heart me because their arms hilled anything. And I believe, mi kids do to. Thank you for this article, it was beautiful!
My 16 year old still asks me to read to her occasionally, when she’s not being a moody teenager and my 18 year old still hugs me and tells me “I love you” in front of his college friends. I love it! Keep holding them as long as you can!
I have 4 children aged from 15 to 9 and I still carry my 9 year old especially when we go to some shows that are crowded and she can’t see from her wheelchair, she is fast catching me up in height though.
I love your confidence in carrying your children! Whenever I carry my son my mother views it as a bad thing and tries to make me feel guilty about it. One question, though: How do you keep your back from aching?!
I carry my 3 boys (7,8,9) when they ask. Just for a minute and they can’t jump on me because they are getting so big. I won’t be able to for much longer but there is still something very sweet about them when you hold them. Sometimes it’s when I wake them up and sometimes when I put them to bed. What anyone else thinks doesn’t really matter.
I am still carrying my 2 kids, my daughter is 9 and almost as tall as me. I carry her piggy back, My son is 8 and I still carry him on my side but sometimes piggy back. I can only do it for so long as my back then starts to hurt. But I am thankful that I can do that still with them. They still ask to cuddle with me and I love that they still want to do that.
I never comment on these things but I had to make an exception here. I love this, every bit of it. It was especially great to me to read that you’re 4’11”- I am too! At 85 lbs I am a petite little mama- and my 7 year old son, Nico, is almost as tall and weighs 74 lbs. I know because he broke his arm two weeks ago, and aside from the fact that he was weighed before they administered the drug that would put him to “sleep” and enable the doctors to set the bones back in place without feeling the pain, I know because I carried him. I held him and loved him and rubbed his hair against my chin like I used to do when he was a tiny baby (of course with my neck stretched as far as it could go with out snapping). Believe me, I felt every bit of those 73 lbs in my bones. Each one weighed on my heart as I stopped to think “this may be the last time you get to carry him”. My daughter, Mikaela, who is 4 has been carried by me every day since then. I’m going to savor those moments and carry her (well, the both of them) for as long as I can, but I will carry them in my heart forever. 🙂
Dana,
Thank you for writing this today. I loved your words- so sweet!!