Giving Myself to My Kids

It seems like lately I haven't been very good at giving my kids the attention that they need. I've noticed that a lot of times I put them off to do "my" things around the house. Which means that they end up watching too much tv or playing too many video games or getting into fights with each other. I think that it's probably natural that as kids get older, there is less one-on-one time with the parents. But, I don't want it to be that way. I really want to focus on playing with them more.

Yesterday, we went to the Provo Library for bedtime stories. I'm a pretty consistent attender of the daytime story time, but I've never gone to any of the nighttime events. The kids wore their pajamas and we all really enjoyed the story tellers. It was fun to watch them singing and dancing and laughing so hard at all the jokes. It really was a fun time and I'm glad that we made the effort to go.

Today after school, I didn't want to fall into our normal afternoon routine of me cooking and cleaning and them playing or watching tv. So, I suggested that we go find a park that we've never been to before. I purposely didn't bring a book or anything else for me to work on while they played so that I could just enjoy participating in their play. We picked Exchange Park which is actually quite close to our house, but kind of hidden back in a neighborhood so we've never been there. It is right next to the Provo river, so we started off by throwing rocks in the river. Then we played on the playground, swinging, doing underdogs and spiders. Next, we played freeze tag. Britton and I both were very impressed by how fast Haley is. I had no idea. She really was good at getting away from Britton. We visited the river again for a bit and then found a secret hideout. I won't disclose where it is because it's a secret. We formed a club and decided that we needed to go back there every week for meetings. We built a club symbol out of sticks and pinecones and we're hoping it's still there when we go back. Britton made up a secret handshake and I made up a secret chant. It was so much fun and I can't wait until we make it back there.

When we got home, the kids helped me make dinner. We made pizza. We made a huge mess while rolling out the dough and making different shapes. Britton was covered in flour. But it was so much fun seeing him throw the dough up like the pros. It was good to just laugh and play.

It's sad to me that I have to keep learning the same lessons over and over again. We are all so much happier when I just make a little extra effort to give myself to my kids. It's not hard at all and the rewards are infinite.