I'm totally in to activities for the kids. I'm always thinking of the next thing that
Sydney and/or Abby will be doing, and I usually have a bit of guilt when we
stay home, but I have to admit, I am getting over that. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood
came from the activities that my parents put me in or that we participated
in. We love to go to the park, go on adventures in the woods, do fun things at the Y, and really, whatever is happening on any given weekend, we're in! I want the kids to be as athletic as
their little bodies will let them, but also to experience as many opportunities
as possible so they can discover where their talents lie. I always wonder – what did I do with my time
before I had these two girls? Now, it’s, not all, but mostly, all about the
girls.
I had a thought last night at about 10 o'clock on
my way to bed. I thought to myself, "I think I may have my priorities
screwed up a bit here when it comes to how we spend our time." I came back out to the living room where
Jamie was watching the hockey game, and I said, "I think I've been
focusing on the wrong activities for Sydney." He looked at me with his Oh boy, here we go again face, and said,
"Ok, well, what else should she be in?" I laughed and said, "I
don't think she needs to be in something else, but I think we need to be doing
something else."
I started this blog because I'm always second
guessing myself as a parent, and I always want to be doing the best for our
family and for our girls. Sometimes I'm
feeling like a rock star, and sometimes I'm feeling like the roadie. But, what I know for sure, is that to grow a
great adult, you need to instill confidence, kindness and caring. Sydney can drop kick a ball like nobody's
business, she can almost swim on her own and she does exactly what her ballet
teacher tells her to do. I beam with
pride when she does a puzzle by herself or makes a craft she wants to hang on
the fridge, but these are all things that are about her, and I think we need to
start to focus a little beyond team Henderson, and more on others.
I sat myself down on the couch and said to my
husband, "If we can spend all this time going to ballet, swimming, gym
tots and music, then we can spend time doing things for other
people." Jamie smiled and said,
"Yes, I guess we can, but we need to remember she's only 3, we can't start
off volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.
A plastic hammer can only do so much." I laughed and said,
"Yes, but every time we go to the grocery store we can get one food item for our
food bank box and then when it's full we can take it to the food
bank." Jamie agreed. We then talked about other things that we can
do that will show Sydney, and eventually Abby, that it's not always about
them. The world needs good citizens and
teaching positive, giving behaviors begins at home.
We're going to start with the food bank box and
hopefully get to the food bank every couple of months to drop it off. I'm going to look in to whether or not we
could volunteer there to help with sorting, etc. Sydney loves to group like items with like
items, so I figure that would be a good start.
We're also going to go once a month to a local seniors home and do
puzzles with the residents (Sydney's going to put her puzzle making ability to
use). We also love to bake, so we'll
take baking to people in our church, neighbourhood or community who need a
little pick me up.
On this Thanksgiving weekend, I guess I'm just thankful for how my life has turned out so far. I don't really have anything to complain about, and anything that I do want to complain about, I am the one that needs to fix the problem, so there's no use in complaining anyway. I think it's important for Sydney and
Abby to appreciate that they too are fortunate, but also realize that what really
matters is the good fortune they can bring to other people. We're not going to start our own volunteer
organization any time soon, but we're going to start to rethink the way we
spend our time as a family. I don't
think our time would ever be wasted on others.
Yours in making a paradigm shift,
Beth
