“Go potty, go potty!” I hear the little words come out of his mouth with urgency. I think, “Yes, finally! We’ve made real progress this time.” Then, I look at his damp pants and frustration sets in. Yet again, I have to rinse out underwear, pants, and perhaps a shirt. What is it three times just today? Doesn’t he know that I need to do other stuff today? We’ve done everything we know to do: starting early to just get him used to the idea, regular schedule (well…semi-regular), and have recently graduated to cloth training underwear instead of disposal ones. Ugh!
But then…as I put his fourth pair of pants for the day on him, he leans over, wraps his sweet little arms around me, and lets out a big “mmmmm” as he pats me on the on the back. Oh, I melt. All of the aggravation falls away and is replaced by that joy that can only come to a mom. I am reminded that being interrupted from my other tasks in order to do a “potty run” can be used as just another opportunity for a sweet moment with my son.
We get so caught up in all the tasks that fill our days. We’ve got laundry, dinner, paperwork, and general cleaning that needs to be done. Who has the time to sit down with our kids and get to know them? But if we really look, opportunities can present themselves all the time for all sorts of things we can do with your kids. Grocery stores can turn into a math lesson, the chore of cooking can be a time to get your hands gooey together, and bath time can turn into a splish-splashy playtime. Isn’t spending time with them, knowing them, watching and helping them grow the reason we started staying at home in the first place?
I am bad about getting too involved in the needs of the household while putting the needs of my son off until I get the next task done. Just let me get the floors done…sound familiar? But why does one have to suffer because of the other? I have begun to try to do both at the same time. For example, he puts the spoons away while I empty the rest of the dishwasher. It is also a good time to do some counting. We don’t have a long time with these angels that have been entrusted to us, each moment is precious, and maybe we need to make the most of them.
I know there are plenty of you thinking “Wow, this is just now hitting you? I realized this ages ago!” I’m glad that you’ve got a good head start. I’m still trying to perfect my juggling act. Leave a comment and share with us what works for you. Perhaps it will give the rest of us some ideas for our daily schedules and some encouragement that it is actually possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment