I think I’m running my kids ragged.
There never seems to be a break. There is never time to just sleep in. I had to tell Nadia to take a day off from school to sleep today. Luckily she’s a great student and can afford the day off, but is one day off enough when she starts up at her break-neck speed the very next day? I’ve done the same for Maya too, but it’s harder now that she’s in high school. She’s not into as many activities though - her stress has come from school itself.
But it’s not me who is forcing all the activities onto Nadia. I’m the one trying to get her to slow down, to drop activities (all of which she loves, by the way). At one point in the past year, she had an activity on every day of the week. This semester, she’s down to 5 days a week mainly because we are trying to cut back on some expenses.
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So, I wrote the above part of this post on February 10, 2016. I think the fact that I am just now finishing it speaks to the topic of this post!
Anyway, I’m prompted to finish this post now because this past week was our Spring Break. And we did nothing. And I really mean NOTHING. We didn’t go anywhere, we didn’t plan anything, I didn’t try to wake the girls up in the morning. Nadia still had ballet Tuesday through Saturday and Maya still had her night art class at LAVC (Los Angeles Valley College), but other than that...NOTHING. We binge-watched tv shows, we went for walks, we watched movies, Maya drew (a lot, which was great for her - thanks to her teachers who gave her no homework over Spring Break).
I tried to get them to go out to explore the city a bit, but they weren’t willing to leave the house if they didn’t have to. Personally I got a little stir crazy, and I am usually the one clamoring to go out and have fun, but both of my girls were perfectly content to lounge around at home for a full week and not do a damn thing. They didn’t even call friends to set up sleepovers which is usually what happens when we have a break from school. Although Maya did go to the movies with a friend from school to see Deadpool for the 3rd time.
And of course, now, I’m looking around the house, my still-messy house, and feeling guilty about the fact that I also did nothing. I did organize some things for my various activities throughout the week, but over all, I spent the week with my family taking a break from the world.
When suggesting that we go out somewhere, anywhere, Maya asked me why. She said that they are happy to stay at home, to work on fun projects (like her drawing), or to watch hours of tv with me. Why should we go somewhere when we are perfectly happy to be at home together?
Why, indeed. Sometimes we really do need time to just do nothing. And I need to let myself enjoy that because the time is fleeting - this week went by so fast. I need to remember that my family WANTS to be together at home...I am so blessed to have that.
