I’ve found that I use the phrase “and we’ll go really fast” or “we’ll do it quickly” often and Maggie has started to tell me to ‘take my time’ and not rush. Rushing, no matter if intentional or not, is part of having a family, especially when the kids are young. Today I took Sydney and Audrey for a walk after I dropped Maggie off at school. It was rainy and enjoyable, once the Pug decided that she was fine tromping through the puddles. Audrey and I made it back home for a bit of time, where I finally got the clue that she wanted to play and I needed to stop doing things around the house. She loves to roll the ball back and forth and this morning we got two going at once.
Since Audgie and I spent time playing, it means that I didn’t finish cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast (pancakes!!), start the laundry, make the beds, go to the grocery store,blah, blah, blah. And I feel guilty for not having a tidy house, but I feel more guilty for not spending quality time with my kids. I can’t win and so when I don’t get things done, I start to play the ‘we’ll do it all really quick’ game in my head. And it takes my precious, worldly, smart almost-four-year-old to remind me to slow down.
After I picked Maggie up, I started to tell her that we needed to stop by a couple stores (see above about playing with Audrey) and that’d we be ‘real quick’ and then head home for lunch. I didn’t even realize I was feeling pressure and stress about not being caught up. So, from the back seat, Maggie tells me “Mama, we don’t need to be quick. We can take our time….”
And she is right.
Lesson learned.
For that moment.
We went to the store and took our time. Mags rode standing up and holding on and we played our standard “Anchor Up” game. We started at the lobsters, oohhed and ahheeed at the crackers and loaded into the car when we were all done. By the time we pulled into our driveway, I could hear the dialogue in my head telling myself that I’d be “real quick” about pulling up the recycle bin, unloading the groceries, and whatever else before I started to make lunch.
It wasn’t until I had lunch in front of both the girls and Maggie and I were talking about the rain that I really felt myself slow down, calm down and enjoy the time. I’m up for the challenge of truly taking my time, but boy…..it’s going to be a hard lesson to learn.
(As always, a sprinkling of photos from recent weeks.)
