I am reading this great book right now called Organized Simplicity (THANK YOU Mich for the suggestion... I LOVE it!). It is a great book about the idea of living simply. It is something I have been working toward but lacked a little direction. Reading this book has helped me hone in on what I want out of life and family.
Anyway, what I wanted to write about is the idea of over-scheduling. Most of us are insanely over-scheduled. Our calendars are out of control and our free time is dwindling down to nothing. Our family works hard to keep as much free time as we can but it isn't easy. There is a section of the book that talks about how over-scheduled our children are becoming. With all of the sports and classes and groups they have almost as little free time as their parents do.
This summer I was planning on enrolling the girls in a couple of classes through the township to "keep them busy". After reading this part of the book I am thinking about not doing this. Is it so wrong to spend long days at the pool with nothing to do but swim and play and lay in the sun? Isn't there something to be said for not knowing what we're doing until we've been out of bed for a couple of hours? Isn't there merit in teaching our children that it is okay to have free time... even good?
I think it's our generation who has to start teaching our children that work is just a means to an ends. It isn't everything. It isn't what defines us. Maybe that first step in doing this is just DOING NOTHING.
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3 comments:
Good book suggestion- I'll have to find it at the library. It's so common in our area to start kids as young as two in art, gymnastics, language, and music classes. I think that is insane.
Hooray! I'm so glad you actually looked into the book :-) It brought so much clarity to me. In relation to your post, I feel guilty if the kids don't have "stuff" going on. I feel like I'm supposed to have activities or play dates planned for them all the time. I'm not feeling well today so while Linc naps Ava and I have been cuddling on the couch, eating popcorn and watching HGTV. It was wonderful! It made me re-realize how important doing nothing is. Also, some of MY favorite childhood memories are from doing nothing - swimming in the pool allll day long and playing in the woods for hours and hours. I'd honestly already forgotten about that part in the book so thanks for the reminder!
P.S. I wash my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar 80% of the time too since reading the book :-)
As a kid I loved to just hang at the pool all day with my family and friends. There's nothing better!
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