Week Three: Hurrying
3. Today, I will not have any emergencies. There are no emergencies! Only amateurs hurry.
Hurry! Let's go! We're going to be late. COME ON!
I try to avoid those words. I sign up for very few activities that we have to be on time to. When we do have a strict time to meet, we start talking about leaving 30 minutes before we really have to leave, start talking about loading up the car 10 minutes before we really have to leave, and actually load up 5 minutes before we have to leave. Because inevitably there will be a "project that I have to work on" or "a straw cup full of milk" needed or another {surprise!} poopy diaper to change.
Ann Voskamp is right. Once we've been parents for a couple years, we learn. Emergencies are trouble. Plan ahead. Way ahead.
It benefits the mother, for sure. I can almost feel my blood pressure rising when we're pushing the clock and kids are dragging their feet.
When we plan ahead and try to avoid the rush, I think the children feel less stress too. How do you think kids feel when we're always in a hurry?
I read this quote from an article about a book by David Elkind called The Hurried Child:
"We hurry children because stress induces us to put our own needs ahead of their needs."He goes on to talk about how obsessed we can be with punctuality and using our time efficiently, to the detriment of our children, who just want to smell the flowers or see how the automatic door works. And we wonder why our children are becoming impatient and have trouble relaxing.
So, this week, focus on less time spent hurrying. Give yourself breathing room. Give your children the gift of time...time to spend doing whatever they want. Time for a leisurely roll in the grass.
Time to feel your love.
I'll be thinking about emergency avoidance this week. We won't lose a screw if we're late to a play-date. =)
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