school shoes were too tight

Dear Delyara, This morning started with my son saying his school shoes were too tight. Not tomorrow, not next week, but this morning, while I was already making breakfast and checking the time every two minutes. I wanted to say, “Why are you telling me this now?” but I could see from his face that he already knew the timing was bad. So I said, “Wear them today and we’ll go after school.” The whole day I carried those shoes in my head. Work, lunch, traffic, messages, all of it happened, but in the background there was still the question of shoes, money, and time. That is the part of motherhood I rarely hear anyone say properly. The mind is never only in one place. There is always one small practical thing moving around inside you while you are trying to function like a normal adult. We bought the shoes after school. He was happy. I was relieved. By the time we got home I felt like I had completed a mission no one would ever call important.