After Experiencing Every Mom's Worst Nightmare, This Woman Has a Message For All Parents
Ashley Grimm may have just created the most perfect parent-child bucket list, but the reason she has come up with it is soul-crushing. While driving five of her children in the family van — with her 4-year-old and 8-year-old sons unbuckling in the backseat to "switch spots" — Grimm was forced to drive over a rolling rock that sent the car into the side of a cliff. Her 4-year-old son, Titus, was killed instantly, and Grimm, completely devastated, has written an important message to all parents.
"I feel led to write this to all you Mamas because I have a longing to look each of you in the eyes and tell you this: 'Hold your babies tight,'" she writes in a Facebook post, which outlines the details of the worst day of her life and the events that followed. After being judged for what happened to her son, Grimm is sharing a list of things she wishes she'd done more of while Titus was still alive, things she's urging every single parent to do every day they're blessed with their children's tiny lives.
"Maybe finishing broccoli at dinner isn't as important as we might think. . . . Maybe they can still have ice cream — even just sometimes — while those veggies still sit on their plate.
Take every hug and kiss they bring you — even the twenty-fifth one they use just to get out of bed at night.
Tell them you love them. But look in their eyes and say it like you mean it.
Yes, we must hold them accountable, but sometimes, maybe grace is the answer. Maybe, just maybe, they won't end up ruined if we let some things slide.
Never judge another mama. We don't know the whole story, we don't know. We just don't know.
Go hug your babies right now. Soak in their smell, look at the innocent sparkle in their eyes that is lost somewhere between childhood and adulthood. . . . Remember the feeling of their head on your shoulder, their hand in yours, their sloppy kisses on your cheeks."
Before signing her heartfelt and heartbreaking post, Grimm shares a final message with every mom: "Mamas, hold your children tight. How blessed you are to have been entrusted with such unique, beautiful, tiny humans."