One of my biggest parenting bug bears and one that I am most certainly guilty of on many occasions is rushing.
You often see parents rushing their children when they are out and about. And I often find myself rushing my own kids for no good reason.
Sometimes it comes down to necessity- like our rush to get out of Will's school each day so that the big kids aren't left waiting too long especially if it is wet or super hot- or Cailee's work day.
Sometimes it comes down to poor organisational skills on the part of the parent. If I know it takes 'so' long to get ready to go out each day and that my child is going to mess around when I ask him to get dressed/eat breakfast/get his shoes- then I need to be up earlier to allow for that sort of thing. This is super important for going to school because they need to time to greet their friends and their teacher. Complete their morning routine and then a few minutes or more just to breathe and prepare for the day BEFORE the bell rings.
Bust the absolute worst case of rushing is when there is no reason for it. Your doing the shopping, you don't have to be anywhere- it doesn't matter if you get the little kids trolley for the 2 year old and take twice as long to do the shopping. It really doesn't matter. In fact it's actually a really good thing for them to do this- it's fun. They're learning, they're 'helping' and working together with you. But we're influenced by a constant sense of needing to do more, go faster, see more, read more and so on. And it's not real we do not need any of those things- in fact I believe the reverse is true I think we need to do less, go slower, see less, read less (on the internet at least) and really take our time to be present and mindful of now and not what's next.
This is especially important as a parent of small children because what's happening now- isn't going to be happening for much longer- if you blink you'll miss it. If you rush through your days before you know it you will have rushed past a year.
You often see parents rushing their children when they are out and about. And I often find myself rushing my own kids for no good reason.
Sometimes it comes down to necessity- like our rush to get out of Will's school each day so that the big kids aren't left waiting too long especially if it is wet or super hot- or Cailee's work day.
Sometimes it comes down to poor organisational skills on the part of the parent. If I know it takes 'so' long to get ready to go out each day and that my child is going to mess around when I ask him to get dressed/eat breakfast/get his shoes- then I need to be up earlier to allow for that sort of thing. This is super important for going to school because they need to time to greet their friends and their teacher. Complete their morning routine and then a few minutes or more just to breathe and prepare for the day BEFORE the bell rings.
Bust the absolute worst case of rushing is when there is no reason for it. Your doing the shopping, you don't have to be anywhere- it doesn't matter if you get the little kids trolley for the 2 year old and take twice as long to do the shopping. It really doesn't matter. In fact it's actually a really good thing for them to do this- it's fun. They're learning, they're 'helping' and working together with you. But we're influenced by a constant sense of needing to do more, go faster, see more, read more and so on. And it's not real we do not need any of those things- in fact I believe the reverse is true I think we need to do less, go slower, see less, read less (on the internet at least) and really take our time to be present and mindful of now and not what's next.
This is especially important as a parent of small children because what's happening now- isn't going to be happening for much longer- if you blink you'll miss it. If you rush through your days before you know it you will have rushed past a year.
Slow down.
♥
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