Slowing Down

It’s a Saturday morning, after a long work week. The house is a mess, the yard is two weeks overdue for a cut, and “I’m bored” has been groaned a dozen times so far.  We’ve got a few hours to spare before the hustle of the weekend routine kicks in. Gymnastics class and hockey practice will fill the afternoon but for now…the park calls our name.

Grab a travel mug full of coffee. Depending on the season, maybe pile on a few extra layers of clothing. We throw the bag of spare clothes in the trunk and off we go to the playground!  The kids rush off to their favourite playground games as we sit back on the park bench and let out a big, happy sigh. 

This is the magical few hours of each week where the kids are content, and your coffee is still warm.  You get to catch up with the other parents at the playground, while enjoying the fresh air. For an hour or so, your only responsibility is watching the kids play from afar. There are no chores at the playground. Sigh. This might be the perfect opportunity to sneak in a few chapters of your latest book. Sigh.  You can close your eyes and feel the warmth of the sun hit your face. Sigh. It doesn’t matter where you find that happy sigh, but it’s important to find it somewhere. 

That may be at the playground, could be watching them play at the beach, or maybe it’s even just watching them play in your backyard with their friends. Taking that moment of pause at some point during the week is such a good way to bring the joy back into parenting. 

We do not live in a slow world anymore.  Maybe we never really did but it certainly feels like everything runs in fast motion these days. It’s not good enough that our children are in one extracurricular activity, they must be in two or three. There’s always a daycare or school looking for a volunteer, or baked goods.  We are on overdrive with our full-time jobs that leave no room for our full-time parenting career or full-time chef gig, or full-time house cleaning responsibilities.  We are tired.  We need a pause. We need that sigh!

Take a minute to catch a sunrise or sunset. Dim the lights and sit by the fire. Did you know they have a yule log you can stream on Netflix and Youtube? All the joy, with no mess!  End your evening with a nice cup of tea and some journaling. Whatever it takes to find even just one sigh each day.