Day Twenty-Eight: Connect to Valuing This Time

Yesterday at lunch everything just became too much for my kids. It had been a rough morning of school with technical difficulties, frustrations and missing teachers. They’d been playing for a while and gotten tired and annoyed with each other. And finally, the fights just came to a head and Magnolia said the same thing she’s said 1,000 times, “I want my old life back.”

So we sat there and said all of the things we missed. And all of the things we were sad would never happen. Spring concerts. The field trip to the zoo. Playdates. In-class birthday celebrations. Art class. Swim class. Playgrounds. Recess. Coffee shops. Any shops. Pedicures. Friends. Teachers. All the other adults who help us share the load of parenting.

We all cried for awhile and just grieved. I don’t think we can truly value this time until we acknowledge that it comes at a cost. All the fun, happy memories we’re supposed to be making? All the baking and art and board games? Every one of us is paying for that time in some loss. It may be small to us, but the field trips cancelled? That means something to these kids. The friends they fear will forget them? That’s real.

I want us all to value this time for what it is – a break from normal to help us rethink things. But part of connecting to that is connecting to the parts of normal we really want to rebuild. So, yes, let’s enjoy the extra movie nights and time spent snuggling, but I think if we really want to value you this time, we will let it teach us how beautiful and wonderful the normal really was.