Bottom line is, we just HAVE to have more of a schedule with the kids. I'm working, Carl's working, and we are our children's sole (for the most part) providers. Skyler's acting...he just needs more FOCUSED attention. As does Deven. And Melody's SUCH a sponge. They all need direction.
So...I'm ridding my house of ALL the toys. Well, ok, there are a FEW we're keeping. ;) Blocks, wood tool bench. And we'll replace them with some more stimulating activities that both parent and child enjoy.
As I look around my basement, I wonder how my kids' playroom got to be this way. Well-intentioned gifts top the list. But this isn't how I want to raise my kids. I want them to see a different way. I want them to hold the items they have in high regard; they need to add value to their lives...even if it's more expensive and means they possess fewer objects.
We are such a CONSUME society. How can we NOT SEE the roll our lifestyle choices play in the state of our economy?
Personally, I'd rather do what I can not to perpetuate that with my children. And I think we CAN make a difference. I would rather give a larger sum of money to a craftsperson on etsy.com for a beautiful, hand-crafted play toy for my children, while helping provide for another American family, than give a smaller sum to a corporate empire who helps to perpetuate consumerism by selling items that are mass-produced by someone in another country. If it means I can't buy MORE objects, well, then so be it. I guess we can't afford those items. And if I can afford more, it doesn't mean I NEED more, nor do I need to be leveraging my entire lifestyle by putting it on a credit.
So...I'm ridding my house of ALL the toys. Well, ok, there are a FEW we're keeping. ;) Blocks, wood tool bench. And we'll replace them with some more stimulating activities that both parent and child enjoy.
As I look around my basement, I wonder how my kids' playroom got to be this way. Well-intentioned gifts top the list. But this isn't how I want to raise my kids. I want them to see a different way. I want them to hold the items they have in high regard; they need to add value to their lives...even if it's more expensive and means they possess fewer objects.
We are such a CONSUME society. How can we NOT SEE the roll our lifestyle choices play in the state of our economy?
Personally, I'd rather do what I can not to perpetuate that with my children. And I think we CAN make a difference. I would rather give a larger sum of money to a craftsperson on etsy.com for a beautiful, hand-crafted play toy for my children, while helping provide for another American family, than give a smaller sum to a corporate empire who helps to perpetuate consumerism by selling items that are mass-produced by someone in another country. If it means I can't buy MORE objects, well, then so be it. I guess we can't afford those items. And if I can afford more, it doesn't mean I NEED more, nor do I need to be leveraging my entire lifestyle by putting it on a credit.
But I digress. That's the beauty of MY blog. :)
The ridding of the toys and the trying to get things done...there's just TOO much distracting the children! Which, you might originally think that the distractions might be a good thing, when there's so much to get done during the day.
But I think it's actually our problem.
It's too easy to let my child wander from toy distraction to toy distraction, with me sitting next to them, working away on my laptop. I'm not opposed to having a little Free Play throughout the week, but it needs to be coupled with a larger amount of stimulating and parent-guided play.
You know, we're good parents. We do things as a family, read books, play cars, hikes, yadda yadda...but we REALLY have chaos going on in our house. Carl owns his own business. I'm also starting LolliDoo (duh), volunteering and hoping to sit for the IBCLC exam this summer. We homeschool. We're building our house. We have three children. And we NEED to be more organized about our entire lifestyle if we expect to maintain and blossom in ALL regards of family life. And, I don't think we have TOO much on our plate. We just need to be more efficient about what we do and with a different perspective. So...the toys are going. We do not need the time wasters and we don't need the distractions.
Carl and I are going to fraction our time and, essentially, take shifts. I'd like to split the day up to where we each have a pre-determined amount of time for chores and activities with the kids while the other does the work they need to do and then we swap mid-day.
This may be another DUH moment, but our household is very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-the-LolliDoo kind of place. So coming up with such a basic schedule/plan is difficult to do...let alone sticking with it.
In our non-chore hours with the kids, I'd really like to create some Montessori-inspired activities. When introduced to the Montessori philosophy, I felt Maria Montessori had put words to the stirrings of my heart. I promised Skyler a trip to the library tomorrow, if they're open, and I have a book on-hold waiting for me. We'll see what sorts of inspiration we get to create activities to do together.
So this REALLY will be a lifestyle paradigm. Throwing out the time wasters, creating, instead, some respectful, inspiring activities, parent and child, that stimulate and foster our relationships, educating and empowering our family to experience fulfillment in ways that don't perpetuate a lifestyle that is not only a detriment to OUR family, but the greater sum of them all.
How's that for ending a day with crazy run-on sentence and a blog that's lead everywhere...including my pillow.
No comments:
Post a Comment