Solid relationships both stand the test of time and demonstrate flexibility as partners grow and change. This describes one of #missingessentials that I’ve relied upon for its important and evolving uses:
The Market Basket
Years ago when our twins were born, we had to streamline our life as much as humanly possible. It was complicated enough already having two preschoolers (3 and 4 years old), no family nearby, and no childcare. Anything that could be made easier was pared down or simplified. One decision was making a portable changing station to avoid running up and down the stairs of our then multi-floored townhouse. Fun fact: newborns average 10 diapers a day. Math fact: 10 times twins is more than 20. To help tote around said diapers along with wipes, creams, and more, I found a simple market basket: large, light, and tough. This screenshot below is the exact basket I bought just days before I delivered our two youngest.
Isn’t she pretty, and so very useful as a diaper caddy. When the time came to pass and we left diapers behind (bless), this trusty market basket became helpful in new ways. Having four little kids means needing lots of little things; there was no diaper bag or purse big enough, but the market basket was able to fit it all. Any time we left the house the basket would come along laden with activities for the car, changes of clothes, bags for the soon-to-be dirtied clothes, and so on.
Years later, her usefulness continued to grow as our needs changed. She’s my go-to for picking up and putting away the stuff families accumulate in odd corners of the house. She comes with me every other week to the library to swap out new books. She helps transport LEGO creations from room to room. She’s sat pitch-side with half-time orange slices for soccer teams. She travels with us on every road trip, from a drive to a nearby hike or to far flung rental home holidays, filled with snacks and sticker books for passing around the minivan. Even today as we celebrated our twins’ 8th birthday, our trusty market basket helped lug water bottles to the backyard to beat the heat.
Though each use of the market basket would be enough to solidly land it on the #missingessentials list from parenting checklists, it’s actually the variety of its use and the longevity of its usefulness that locks the market basket as a have-to-have. Resilient and adaptable, the kind of solid relationship every parent deserves to have.
4 in 4 Years 