Grab The Tissues For This Mom’s Post About Holding Her Kid Instead Of Doing Chores

Ah, the internet. It is so many different things to a parent: a resource (a recent search in my house: “when do kids stop having tantrums?”), an occasional babysitter (have you heard that “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” is officially good for kids?) and a source of relatable laughs (read “You Know You’re A Mom When…”) as well as tears.

As a parent, I challenge you to not get teary-eyed while reading this mom’s blog post about the multitude of things she had planned to do—and instead ditched in order to hold her sleeping child. The post, published on The Huffington Post, is called “Instead I Held You,” and starts off like this:

“Today my patience has run thin and all I could think about was having a few minutes to myself, but as you fell fast asleep on my chest, it was an easy choice despite a list of things needing to be done.

Because instead … I held you.”

The post, from mom blogger Regan Long, who manages The Real Deal of Parenting Facebook page, outlines the overdue work, missed phone calls needing to be returned, laundry to be started, dishes to be washed and countless other items that parents wait desperately until nap time to accomplish. The post closes with these lines:

The Facebook post has been shared more than 18,000 times in the last two days and received more than 600 comments, many like the below, from parents reminiscing and relating:

Parents everywhere can relate to the challenge of finding balance between everyday responsibilities, and living in the present moment with your kids. Our kids need to be held, played with and given our full attention—but dishes and laundry need to be done, too.

If anything, Long’s post serves as a reminder to put down that to-do list for as long as makes sense for you today in order to pause and be present with the ones you love.