Today was a beautiful day! I am so glad that friends of ours invited us to the playground for lunch and playing. We had a wonderful time running in the field, climbing the jungle gym, and slipping down the slides. We watched our kids swing on the swings. We watched the conquer fears of going down a fireman's pole. We enjoyed the precious moments of watching them have fun together and want to show us their new thing like "doing the monkey bars."
I am so grateful for this friend. It is so neat how God places people in our lives at just the right time. This friend has been such an encourager and energizer for me. It truly has been a blessing to get to know her and her beautiful, three daughters. It is so fun to watch all our kids run around and just have pure fun together.
Today, the topic about how you view your role of a stay at home mom came up. My friend was sharing how she has taken her girls to different parks recently and experiencing all sorts of new things such as baby lambs and a pregnant momma pig. She proceeded to ask where I like to take the kids and I had to stop and think. I could not honestly recall a park that we consistently go. I then shared that Andrew and I did everything together with David for the first 3 1/2 years. During that time, Andrew was always the one looking up new parks to go to or stopping at a fire station to explore. He was choosing new activities to pursue. However, when we moved to DC, (about 3 1/2 years ago) I would take the kids to DC to do things with Andrew during his lunch break or right after he got off work. But I began to struggle with a feeling of guilt each time we would go somewhere without Andrew. Andrew LOVES spending time with his family and nothing is more important to him. Though he never told me to stay at home and not have fun, I just began feeling like I couldn't have fun without him. I explain it like this that life happens when he is around. Not that life stops when he isn't, but at times it feels like it. But today as my friend and I were talking I realized that my kids are growing up. We have a wonderful opportunity to be together and I can either chose to have fun and show them new things or sit at home and chose complacency. Now I do not want to be running around all the time, I know that I need life at home to be stable and consistent. But I also need to feel free to go to a park, meet up with friends, and enjoy the day to day activities with my kids and not feel guilty about it. Then each weekend, I can treasure the moments we spend together as a family doing the many things we love to do.
So what is your view of a stay at home mom? What would you chose to do with your kids? How important is being at home to you in terms of day to day activities or would you rather be spending your time checking out new things? What is an appropriate balance? How would you or do you fit homeschooling into trips to the park or zoo?
I hear you, Kristen. Sometimes I feel like I'm the one having all the fun with them when we go out for lunch or go to the park, but there are in actuality more days when I find myself wishing I have a "real" job because nobody is listening to me and I've picked the same things up off the same floors and said the same things 100x in the same day! Balance is your key word! Yes, I am privleged to stay home with them when they are small, but it is also the hardest job I can think of and it isn't all trips to the park or watching soaps and eating bon bons. Most times I can't even go to the bathroom in peace! Thanks for the reminder to squish more fun into each day, though. It'll do us no good in the long run if all we do is the work! You learn better when you're laughing, so make sure to laugh often. =)
ReplyDeleteI do a little bit of both. Some things I invite Scott to go with us (taking vacation time from work to do so) Sometimes he's able to and will join us, sometimes he isn't and won't. Some things he doesn't care about as much as others, so he'll tell me that and I can go without him. Some trips I save for weekends b/c either it'll be more fun as a family or I know I need his help. :) Parks and playgrounds we do without dad. Apple picking, berry picking we also do without him. Others it just varies year to year and activity to activity.
ReplyDeleteAs for staying home or going out and about... I have found as my son gets older our work load gets more so we tend to stay home more to get work done. I Try to plan special outings for Fridays as they are lighter days for us. Since we use the tutorial, I do some things like story time, play dates... etc with my younger 2 when the older 2 are at tutorial.