The Gift of Time
We lead busy lives, especially here in the Silicon Valley. Life is rushed. We rush to drop off our children at school and then rush to work. We rush from work to pick up our children to rush to the next after school activity. We rush to the store to grab items we have forgotten in our rush! We rush home to prepare dinner and the vicious cycle continues. One of the most common pieces of parenting advice is to give your child time and allow your self the time to let your child proceed at their own pace. This is always one of the most difficult tasks for parents because there is always some where to be and something to do….now! Children do not understand the concept of time. Imagine for a moment what that is like. To wake up when we are done sleeping instead of to the sound of an alarm. To go to bed when we are tired instead of because we have finally finished our chores or because we know we have to get up early for work. To eat when we are hungry, and to read or play until we want to stop. Such is the life of a child, if we could allow it, but in the reality of our day to day, we can’t.
But now we have a new day, a new world and with it a new opportunity. It is hard to view the sad and scary situation we are in as positive, but when it comes to time with our children, we have been given a gift. The gift of time.
When were you last able to have the real time to participate in a science experiment with your child? My heart soared today watching the parents help supply materials and follow along with the instructions on zoom with their child. I hope that you parents experienced the same joy. I know your children did.
Take some time this weekend to treasure the gift you have been given. Because when we talk about this in 30 years with our children, about how difficult it was and how scared we were; when we talk to them about being at home all the time and lines at the grocery store and worrying about essential supplies, I wonder if they will remember it differently. I wonder if they will only remember that Mommy and Daddy were home and that there was always time for an extra story at bed time or an extra cuddle on the couch. I wonder if they will remember not the stress of wearing masks and grocery shopping, but the joy of time spent cooking together in the kitchen. I wonder if they will remember wearing dress up costumes every day rather than the morning fight of getting dressed and out the door. I wonder if they will remember doing science experiments with you. I hope so. I hope that when the time does come to return back to ‘normal’ that we have learned something from our time together away from the chaos, and that we choose carefully what parts of ‘normal’ we really want to rush back to.
Enjoy your time this weekend,
Sonalika
