Ahhh… things are better now. So far this week everyone’s healthy. The sun is finally out and the weather is finally warm – it’s been a good day.
In fact, it’s been a strangely picturesque day. We got up this morning, I read the paper while the kids ate breakfast and watched cartoons, and then we went outside for a while. The boys played with bubbles and I – brace yourselves those of you who know me – actually tried to weed my flowerbed. It took me like an hour to get like maybe 10% of it done, then I had to quit because I was already getting a blister and my carpal tunnel syndrome wasn’t liking all the extra curricular activity. Save it for writing my hands seemed to scream with every pull. So I gave up and watered instead. I still felt very domesticated and secretly hoped that the neighbors were watching.
Then we cleaned up and headed into town to pick up Daddy and go mattress shopping. Glory hallelujah, we’re getting a new mattress! It’s really time when you can make your bed up – comforter and all – and still see all the dips and sags in the surface. On the way we stopped for cheeseburgers (I know, not exactly the picture of perfection, but hey, everything else was going well). This would be the point at which I began to realize just how much people in the fast food industry take advantage of us – I mean where else are you going to be charged 50 cents for a piece of cheese?!?! I mean 50 CENTS – but I digress….
The boys and I came home and took naps, then this evening we ate dinner as a family, baked a chocolate cake together, went to the park and flew airplanes, took a drive in the mountains, played ball outside and wrestled on the living room floor. I mean, does it get any better than this?
And you know what I was thinking the whole time? I was thinking how much I was actually enjoying my two year old. We weren’t fighting. He wasn’t whining about anything. Everyone was getting along… I know every day can’t be filled with bubbles and chocolate cake, but I’m wondering if things would be at least a little different if a few more of them were.
Then it got me really thinking. What if we cut out Little League at age four and replaced it with Family Stays Together Night? When our oldest played soccer last fall, I think we only missed one practice/game because of something out of our control. We made sure we were there every week, on time and dressed out because we had made a commitment to a team and we had paid money to be there. Soccer was definitely a priority for those couple of months.
Family time, though, seems so often to be the first to go when the schedule gets tight. We showed up for soccer no matter how tired or busy we were, but we wouldn’t have gone to the park today if we had just been too exhausted from all that had happened over the weekend. We excused ourselves from other obligations on Monday nights last fall because they were practice nights. I don’t think, however, that we would have been playing in the yard tonight if something else had come up that we “had to be at”.
I guess what I’m wondering is this: if it feels so rewarding – so right and so great – to spend time together as a family, why oh why do we skip out on it so easily? Why are days like today so rare for our family that I would actually even consider blogging about them? And what can we do to change that?
If our commitment to a team of four year olds who couldn't really care any less about the game of soccer was too important to break, shouldn’t our commitment to family be a thousand times stronger? Then why isn’t it? It just makes me wonder, is all. What must it say to our children when these two priorities are backwards?
I wonder if we would have more times like tonight if we had to pay someone to have them. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but what if we took that $70-odd dollars required for one kid to “play” soccer (a.k.a. spin around in circles and pick flowers on the field while all the other kids actually kick the ball and run after it), and gave that money along with a signed contract of commitment to someone who would hold us accountable to having family time. Would we show up every week, dressed out and on time, ready to spend time together? Would we put it first ahead of other things we “have to do”? Would I find that I enjoy my two year old a whole heck of a lot more than I ever thought was possible?
It just makes me wonder, and I guess it gives me a lot to think about. Maybe our family needs more nights to practice being a team than my son’s soccer buddies do. If we do get to the point of paying someone to commit us to family time, though, I think I might take the chocolate cake baking out of the weekly routine. Sure, it was fun, but I don’t think my backside can handle that much family togetherness…
In fact, it’s been a strangely picturesque day. We got up this morning, I read the paper while the kids ate breakfast and watched cartoons, and then we went outside for a while. The boys played with bubbles and I – brace yourselves those of you who know me – actually tried to weed my flowerbed. It took me like an hour to get like maybe 10% of it done, then I had to quit because I was already getting a blister and my carpal tunnel syndrome wasn’t liking all the extra curricular activity. Save it for writing my hands seemed to scream with every pull. So I gave up and watered instead. I still felt very domesticated and secretly hoped that the neighbors were watching.
Then we cleaned up and headed into town to pick up Daddy and go mattress shopping. Glory hallelujah, we’re getting a new mattress! It’s really time when you can make your bed up – comforter and all – and still see all the dips and sags in the surface. On the way we stopped for cheeseburgers (I know, not exactly the picture of perfection, but hey, everything else was going well). This would be the point at which I began to realize just how much people in the fast food industry take advantage of us – I mean where else are you going to be charged 50 cents for a piece of cheese?!?! I mean 50 CENTS – but I digress….
The boys and I came home and took naps, then this evening we ate dinner as a family, baked a chocolate cake together, went to the park and flew airplanes, took a drive in the mountains, played ball outside and wrestled on the living room floor. I mean, does it get any better than this?
And you know what I was thinking the whole time? I was thinking how much I was actually enjoying my two year old. We weren’t fighting. He wasn’t whining about anything. Everyone was getting along… I know every day can’t be filled with bubbles and chocolate cake, but I’m wondering if things would be at least a little different if a few more of them were.
Then it got me really thinking. What if we cut out Little League at age four and replaced it with Family Stays Together Night? When our oldest played soccer last fall, I think we only missed one practice/game because of something out of our control. We made sure we were there every week, on time and dressed out because we had made a commitment to a team and we had paid money to be there. Soccer was definitely a priority for those couple of months.
Family time, though, seems so often to be the first to go when the schedule gets tight. We showed up for soccer no matter how tired or busy we were, but we wouldn’t have gone to the park today if we had just been too exhausted from all that had happened over the weekend. We excused ourselves from other obligations on Monday nights last fall because they were practice nights. I don’t think, however, that we would have been playing in the yard tonight if something else had come up that we “had to be at”.
I guess what I’m wondering is this: if it feels so rewarding – so right and so great – to spend time together as a family, why oh why do we skip out on it so easily? Why are days like today so rare for our family that I would actually even consider blogging about them? And what can we do to change that?
If our commitment to a team of four year olds who couldn't really care any less about the game of soccer was too important to break, shouldn’t our commitment to family be a thousand times stronger? Then why isn’t it? It just makes me wonder, is all. What must it say to our children when these two priorities are backwards?
I wonder if we would have more times like tonight if we had to pay someone to have them. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but what if we took that $70-odd dollars required for one kid to “play” soccer (a.k.a. spin around in circles and pick flowers on the field while all the other kids actually kick the ball and run after it), and gave that money along with a signed contract of commitment to someone who would hold us accountable to having family time. Would we show up every week, dressed out and on time, ready to spend time together? Would we put it first ahead of other things we “have to do”? Would I find that I enjoy my two year old a whole heck of a lot more than I ever thought was possible?
It just makes me wonder, and I guess it gives me a lot to think about. Maybe our family needs more nights to practice being a team than my son’s soccer buddies do. If we do get to the point of paying someone to commit us to family time, though, I think I might take the chocolate cake baking out of the weekly routine. Sure, it was fun, but I don’t think my backside can handle that much family togetherness…
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