Time is Valuable

I've been thinking a lot about my time: where it goes, how I spend it, and what that means.  I've read several books about being work, household, and leisure balance.  Right now I am busy but now every hour of every day and I realized that I have a lot of leisure time right now.  I put housework on the back burner and I just spend my days the way I want to.  But does that make me happy?  Am I productive?

I have been pondering a lot of things in this inner dialogue with myself.  I spend a majority of my time focused on screens.  I work on a screen, but most of my leisure is also taken up by a screen.  Am I happy about that?  What does that say about my priorities?  And this is the new question on my mind:  Is that how I want to train my child to be also?

No.  And that is really not even what I want for myself.  You know what has happened to me?  I've gotten lazy.  When I think about my priorities and what I want to show is important to me, I do not want screens to be a priority.  I want God, my family, and time with other people to be my priorities, along with work.  Is my time showing these things?  Absolutely not.  And that has really been haunting me.

I don't want my child to associate time with me with a screen.  I need to disconnect.  This is something I need to continue to think and pray about, but let's just say for now that I am very convicted by the fact that I watched the whole series of Gilmore Girls this last month.  I've read over 200 books this year and watched over 200 movies.  But what does that matter?  How much have I read my Bible?  How comfortable has my home been?  Have I created any new relationships?  Have I grown myself in any way?  I'm not sure.

My time has been showing that I am selfish.  Is that how I want my child to view me?  Children learn by seeing.  What will my children see when they look at me?

940 Saturdays

I was reading an article in a magazine the other day and I was startled by this fact.  From the time that your child is born to the time they are 18 and moving out to go to college, you will only have 940 Saturdays to spend with them.  At first my response was what, I think, the article meant to invoke, shock, and panic. 

“Only 940 Saturdays!” 

But then I started thinking about it.  That’s 940 Saturdays.  I’ll be lucky if my child wants to spend all of those Saturdays with me.  That’s two and half years of just Saturdays!  I know that the article was trying to get me to understand that I will have a limited number of Saturdays with my child and to make the most of them, but that’s a lot of Saturdays, and I think that adds an added amount of pressure to me as a parent. 

 

If I look at every Saturday as something to check off as a “memorable” day, I will stress myself out.  And my child will probably hate it.  If you over plan your weekend, sometimes you are even more tired going into your week.  So I say just relax and spend the time together as a family while you have it.  Yes, plan some fun outings, but also just plan some time to stay home and relax.  And don’t get all worked up that you have to have an amazing plan for every Saturday because as your child gets older they will want to spend Saturdays doing what they want to do.  Hanging out with friends, seeing movies, playing sports, and not doing whatever “fun” thing Mom and Dad want to drag you to. 

 

I did not grow up spending every Saturday with my family, but I still feel like I got plenty of family time growing up and many fun memories.  So don’t get wrapped up in the number of days that you have with your child, but rather just live each day spending time with them, loving them, and do the fun outings every once in a while, but don’t stress yourself out.