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Is this an acceptable wedding reading for someone who has a toddler?

93 replies

Dilemmaemmaaa · 17/07/2022 23:39

I saw this clip on Facebook today and balled my eyes out at it 😭 If you have little kids get your tissues ready before watching!

www.facebook.com/1623394992/posts/pfbid0HthuYejjGeRi2Pxst16jdYjfQdXfsRsEawK3GeS93vJ6mLfZbtyfuPSovWAZmXjnl/?d=n

We’ve got a toddler and we’re getting married in September. I know it’s not your traditional soppy wedding reading but it does sum up our life and love for each other. I think I’d change a few bits that refer to ‘kids’ to make it suit someone with just one child but is this an acceptable reading for a wedding ceremony do you think?
I will attach the reading below.

The Future Can Wait

Dear Husband,
There’s a life in the future with little faces in photo frames instead of before our eyes, and artwork and abc magnets won’t adorn our fridge.
There’s a bed big enough, where little elbows & knees won’t prod us in our sleep and only our feet will swing out in the morning.
There’s a vase placed in reach of little arms because there aren’t any, & mugs will daringly sit on the edge of the table.
There’s a bank balance that looks a bit more forgiving & a bag I leave with that isn’t overflowing.
There’s a free calendar that isn’t packed with swimming lessons, dance classes and muddy sports shoes. And we’ll get to know each other for a third time, before them, with them, & then when only two jackets hang at the door.
There’s a clean car, the only noise is the hum of the radio. There will be no endless questions in a high pitched voice from the back seat, there may even be days we don’t hear from them at all.

There’s a date night with no curfew, my mums not needed for babysitting, & we aren’t sleeping with one eye open waiting for the shuffle of feet down the hallway. A type of freedom that feels heavy.
There’s a house that’s clean, maybe our couch is new, we aren’t stepping on Lego or toy cars either. In fact there’s not much colour anywhere. Remember how it came with so much happiness?
There’s a dinner table that feels big, we aren’t negotiating bites of vegetables or wiping little hands & mouths. But sometimes there’s a knock on the door & the table is full once more.

There’s a shower that doesn’t sound like baby cries, a coffee that is warm and my body will be my own. We won’t wear tired the same way but time will have aged us anyway.
There will be hard moments to come that will make these moments look easy, but we’ll remember.
We’ll remember the first words, the curls, the “I love you’s” the moments we almost broke, & how we held each other through it all.
There’s a life in the future and it’s coming for us. So let’s get swept up in the beautiful chaos in front of us.
Let’s make the future wait a little longer. Because I love this life with you so much, this one right now.

OP posts:
Justawaterformeplease · 18/07/2022 11:25

AngelinaFibres · 18/07/2022 08:44

Pretentious shite.

I think… that’s what Brian Bilston was going for??? The whole thing is tongue in cheek!

KosherDill · 18/07/2022 11:27

WhatTheWhoTheWhatThe · 17/07/2022 23:47

God what a load of nauseating drivel!!

Yes, and way too long.

Wedding readings are dreary anyway. Why make people sit through that?

TuftyMarmoset · 18/07/2022 11:28

Awful and twee.

Also, unless you took a melon baller to your face, you bawled your eyes out - not balled.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

BloodAndFire · 18/07/2022 11:35

I saw this clip on Facebook today and balled my eyes out at it 😭 If you have little kids get your tissues ready before watching!

I don't use tissues to clean up puke.

SleepSleepRaveAsleep · 18/07/2022 11:45

Not for a wedding, you are meant to be in the having fun and in love phase, it's a poem about the despair you feel when you have kids reminding you that one day they won't be kids anymore and it won't be so bleak!! I had my first child 6 months before we got married, my husband referenced me being an amazing mum in his speech but the rest of the day was about us a couple, not about us being parents. Personally I didn't want the fact we'd had a baby first be the focus (she was there and was carried in by my sister etc) but we didn't focus on her or do readings about us being parents. Our readings were about love and growing old together, most weddings I've been to did the same. One did make me laugh they read the lyrics to a love song, it reminded me of the scene from giving and Stacey 🤣🤣🤣. Was hard to keep a straight face as the person reading was trying not to sing it.

ClinkeyMonkey · 18/07/2022 11:50

@DiscoBadgers maybe @AngelinaFibres knows this and is being tongue in cheek by stating the bleeding obvious. Possibly not though! Great poem.

beautyisthefaceisee · 18/07/2022 15:01

Massively insensitive to people who have struggled to conceive/lost children, and that aside, just a pile of tosh.

broughtitbutneedgone · 19/07/2022 07:22

Is it a poem about a couple
Coming to terms with no kids?

But you have an toddler?

Confused

Minimalme · 19/07/2022 07:38

Whadda · 18/07/2022 04:39

How about a bit of Seamus Heaney?

Scaffolding.

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

Perfect.

HikingforScenery · 19/07/2022 07:40

SleepingStandingUp · 17/07/2022 23:52

I'm not as cynical as this lot, but it just doesn't quite sit right. One day they'll have moved out so let's enjoy them now, doesn't work for me as wedding reading.

If you keep any of it, I'd work it around this bit
"And we’ll get to know each other for a third time, before them, with them, & then when only two jackets hang at the door" as that's the pertinent bit.

Its OK to make your wedding speech about you not DC.

I agree. I think the message is sweet; I don’t find it twee but it’s not for a wedding.

User0610134049 · 19/07/2022 07:42

Nah….
and it’s more about parenting than marriage

and let’s face it by the time they do grow up and move out most marriages are…. Well, not like that 😂

HikingforScenery · 19/07/2022 07:43

broughtitbutneedgone · 19/07/2022 07:22

Is it a poem about a couple
Coming to terms with no kids?

But you have an toddler?

Confused

It’s about children leaving home, I think.

GroggyLegs · 19/07/2022 07:51

Well I cried my eyes out but that's because I'm in the midst of a personal crisis over my children getting older & not needing me anymore 🤷‍♀️

Life's to short not to have a bit of twee occasionally. But that said, this is about parenting, not a wedding reading.

LittleBearPad · 19/07/2022 07:52

It’s not exactly about you, him and your relationship.

It’s also very ‘hun’

girlmom21 · 19/07/2022 07:55

ShirleyPhallus · 18/07/2022 07:10

I think I’ve realised from this thread that I absolutely hate poetry

None of it is profound or interesting. You know there’s always an old fella in a pub who has had several drinks and talks drivel to anyone who will listen? They’re all like that. Awful.

I enjoy poetry. I hate listening to people read poetry.

DaisyFleabane · 19/07/2022 07:57

If you don't like any readings (and I agree, modern readings are awful without exception), just don't have any at all. Your guests will thank you.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/07/2022 08:38

All wedding readings should IMO be banned by law, for the sake of the guests trying not to die of boredom or look as if they’re not cringing.
Ditto any speech that’s longer than 5 minutes.
As my DF used to say, ‘Stand up, speak up, shut up.’

shiningcuckoo · 19/07/2022 09:12

You cant barf at Seamus Heaney or Wendy Cope. They are wonderful. At my wedding many moons ago (now divorced and he lives with his girlfriend down the road being a pain in my arse), a ten year old read The Owl and the Pussycat. It was very sweet.

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