It’s kind of crazy how crazy things are right now. All that you have going on. All the stress that raising a family entails. The places you have to get to, the appointments you have to make, the illnesses you have to treat, the problems you have to solve.

One thing after another, everything all at once. You are exhausted. You are burned out. You are in a perpetually bad mood.

And yet it’s not hard to imagine that you will look back on this very period—whether your kids are 3 or 13—as an absolutely wonderful time. You’ll miss it. You’ll forget the fights. You’ll forget the throw up. You’ll forget the anxiety and sense of inadequacy. You’ll just remember how cute they were. You’ll remember strapping them into their car seat. You’ll remember taking them school shopping. You’ll remember movies and baseball games and dance recitals.

As we’ve said before, tempus fugit—time flies. Not long from now, you’ll be jealous of people in the very position you are in. You will be nostalgic for something that you did not enjoy enough while you were in it.

Well…it’s not too late to change that. It’s not too late to be a little easier on yourself. It’s not too hard to look around and remind yourself of all that you have and how fleeting it is. It’s perfectly possible to feel good about this right now.

You deserve that. Your kids deserve that. Because it is good. Because it is wonderful. The sooner you realize that, the better.