Over-Scheduled??

It seems lately that other people's blog posts are inspiring my own. Today I read a blog post written by a man who was incensed by women judging his wife for staying home to raise their twins. His point was that motherhood is the most important that we can do. We shape human beings and teach them morals and how to get along in the world. It's not laziness to stay at home with your kids. It takes a lot of work. Towards the end of his post he discussed how we, as a society, tend to glorify being busy. It's like a badge of honor to be over-scheduled.

I've given this a lot of thought since I became a mom not quite 4 years ago. We have watched our friends with kids run around with crazy schedules: this one to soccer, this one to dance, grab a snack and go get the first one and transport to new soccer field, run back pick up the second one for her soccer, and on and on. Holy Moly! I do not have the energy for that. Of course, I have one kid. I make it a point to be done with the evening's chores by 7:00 p.m. every night. Then we have an hour before bedtime to play games, read stories, watch a favorite show or just talk. Sometimes I use that hour to read a novel ... gasp, I read for my own pleasure?? Can you believe it?? I can only get away with that when my husband is not traveling because he plays with Turtle or reads to her and I get a bit of a break.

Sometimes I catch myself feeling guilty that I'm actually sitting on my rear-end at 7:00 rather than ironing, filing, folding, washing, etc. But, frankly, I can't be bothered. By 7:00, dinner is cooked, eaten, cleaned up, Turtle is bathed, laundry is folded and put away, teeth are brushed, humidifiers are filled, and pajamas are on. Done and done. I know moms who don't sit down from the time they get up in the morning until they finally fall into bed at night. These are the moms who are probably orchestrating crafts, ironing, folding, washing, filing, making photo albums, baking, decorating, sewing Halloween costumes, gardening, harvesting, canning, freezing, etc. Those moms are awesome! I think both kinds of Moms are great, but definitely have no desire to be the second kind. Too exhausting. Some of my fondest memories as a child are sitting on the couch leaning on my mother's knees watching a tv show. I didn't need, or want, her to be constantly on the move. When she was still was when we could connect. Same with Turtle. When we are still is when we can connect.

During the school year, Turtle's activities are one swim lesson, one Chinese lesson, and eventually, we will reintroduce piano. That's it. That's all she does, and I think it's enough. We are done by noon on Saturdays and have the rest of the weekend to go and play. This weekend, we are hitting the pumpkin festival, and she and I might do the Art Museum on Sunday (it's her favorite place to go) while daddy gets in one last round of golf. Sometimes we go to the movies, sometimes we go for a hike, sometimes we go to Tiny Town, sometimes we go the Railroad Museum, sometimes we hit the lego store just to play, sometimes we hit the bookstore and treat it like a library by reading the books right there on the floor. We have fun and we explore and we experiment. I'll take that over 5 days of soccer practice any time. I'm in no hurry for Turtle to sign up for club sports and secretly hope she never does. But if she wants to, I will support her all the way and gripe to all of you about the time I have to spend driving her around and the money I have to spend on her equipment.

I don't want to be so busy that Turtle grows up without me noticing. I don't want her to be so busy that she forgets how to be a child. She's already older than her years. So, my Love, let's be still so that we can stay connected.