We’re on half-term this week and, as usual, my kids are my greatest teachers and I’ve been reminded of a thing or two.
It started off with good old school holiday anxiety!
Then I spend the whole day tussling with the two things – what I’ve planned to do and what I think we should be doing.
– It’s that old familiar feeling of what I think I SHOULD be doing!
– It’s that sense that I’m not a good enough mother because I haven’t filled our days with trips and treats.
– It’s that uneasy feeling of doing household chores and admin jobs instead of being with the kids
– It’s that feeling of allowing them too much time on their iPads and Xboxes.
– It’s that feeling that we should be out more, doing more
And then, at some point in the day I catch up with my whirling mind and notice all the ‘SHOULD’s and remind myself that it’s OK just the way it is.
The way that:
* allows the kids and me to slow down the pace a little,
* allows them to learn to be bored a little from time to time
* allows me to model that life isn’t all trips and treats and that sometimes we just need to get the boring s*%# done – and that it’s not done by the house fairy 🧚
* the balance of being inside on the iPad and outside in nature is actually just fine
And once I’ve stripped the ‘SHOULD’s away I remember that I am enough, this is enough and we are enough. Just as we are.