How often do you tell those you love, how much they bring to your life? Sometimes I marvel at the fact, that as a society we go about our days seeing family less and co-workers more. We even bring our children up that way. After all, needing two incomes in this society to raise a family is normal. Sometimes even needing two incomes w/multiple jobs is necessary. And then those few hours that we do have together are crammed with as much craziness as we can fit in before the cycle starts all over again.
Yet, even realizing this, I am ingrained to want to work more so I can go out and do more with them. To be able to buy more, travel more, move to a larger home. Did your mother stay home to raise you? Mine did for the first few years. You know I don’t remember the years she was with us at home. What I remember most is the day she suddenly wasn’t. Our lives shifted when she returned to the workplace. Living on one income was hard even back then.
Yet having that small influence in my life is what gave me the desire to become a stay-at-home Mom. I typically blog while my kids sleep so as to spend more quality time with them during the day. Blogging for me, allows us so much that we couldn’t otherwise afford. Often times I barely get to bed before the sun hits the horizon. And just like so many others, I try my best to make everything work in the 24 hours I have.
Yet there are still days that my daughter confess quietly that “you didn’t play with me today“. And I am left with a sigh of failure. Because being in the same room with them still isn’t the same as being engaged with them. Teaching her isn’t the same as interacting with her. And oddly enough, its normally days that we have errands to run that she realizes we weren’t unoccupied long enough to get our time together.
At junctures such as these I tell her to go pick out some extra books before bedtime and resolve to juggle it better the next day. The point is, saying you love someone isn’t the same as showing them. Blowing a kiss, grabbing a hug, scribbling a note. They are all grand gestures, but they are a temporary bridge admiring the river instead of cresting down it. They are the little things that are supposed to hold you over while your held up. But too often, we’re left making memories on bridges while life speeds past us.
My point is this. Go out and make a memory today. Find your loved ones and take the chance to laugh, live, eat, play, even for a moment. Life is short. Times are tough and earning a paycheck is a fact of life. But still don’t be afraid to work less and live more, at least where you can. So tell me, how do you make the most of your family time?
akl says
I’ve been working the past few weekends, and yesterday was the first day we just hung out. took the long way home on the backroads, ate a casual dinner, snuggled. it was wonderful.