Wednesday, July 30, 2008

preachin'

we were talking here at work the other day about how busy life can be, especially when you have kiddos. a lot of this comes naturally. if your kiddos are anything like mine (especially oldest daughter... she is a burning ball of constant chaotic energy!) they need entertainment, not to mention education, discipline, re-fueling, spiritual guidance, etc. now, oldest daughter is only 2.5 right now, so i know some moms will read this and ROLL THEIR EYES AT ME... and that's fine... if someday i have to eat my words, then i will do it. i'm not above that (hmmm... reminds me of a billy joel song... let me google the exact lyric... brb.....
If there's a chance of resurrecting a love
I'm not above going back to the start
To find out where the heartache
began


... ok so maybe it doesn't fit exactly... but i digress) i'm not above admitting that i'm utterly full of crap for what i'm about to say...

kids these days are overbooked, overextended, and basically forced to compete at the most ridiculous levels imagineable. i have a friend whose 6 year old plays t-ball and on saturdays and they play freakin' DOUBLE HEADERS! seriously. SERIOUSLY. i think that's stupid. and maybe i'll eat these words, but if playing sports for kids means that one kid spends hours upon hours in one day playing that sport, well forget it. especially not at age 6. i will personally take it upon myself to organize a non-competitive, non-crazy scheduled league for sports for my kiddos. SERIOUSLY!

currently my daughter has never been enrolled in any classes, trainings, programs, etc. heck, she hasn't even had swim lessons yet. i just don't feel the need for her to do it yet, she is still discovering the types of things she's interested in (informally) not to mention the amount that it costs for said lessons is crazy, and if i'm going to pay that much for dues, classes, memberships, costumes, uniforms, etc. it dang well better be for something that she actually wants to do... and currently, she doesn't know what she wants to do from one minute to the next. by the time i get the peter pan movie she has request into the vcr (yes you read that right... we still have TAPES in our house!) she has already changed her mind that she really wants to watch 'hontas' (also known as Pocahontas). if we were doing classes at this age, by the time i signed her up for gymnastics she would be totally uninterested and really want to take soccer.

and while i'm on that topic, husband and i have already started discussing how many extra-curriculars is too many. i guarantee there will be no rushing from soccer to ballet to violin to scouts in our house. not that my kids can't be interested or even involved in more than one thing, but it won't be more than one thing on the same day, and the majority of our family's evenings will not be spent at those things. we will have a stable family, a family that spends time together, not scattered. so help me, i will make it happen. and maybe my kiddos will be mad at me every once in a while. maybe there will be a few tears as they hear a few "nos". maybe they will be angry at me and say that i'm not their best friend anymore. no skin off my back. its not my job to be my kids' friend. its my job to be their mom. and to me, this is what it means to be a good one.
so, that's my rant for the day.

1 comment:

  1. Amen Amen Amen sister!!! stole the words right out of mine and hubbys mouths! we feel the same way! wouldn't time spent at home playing hide and seek under the mound of pillow (booderbeans new favorite!) then dinner at the table together be more enriching for our children then running through fast food jsut to make it to next scheduled activity!

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