Living life with many small children underfoot can have many surprising challenges and tend to magnify and accelerate any seemingly small issue into a giant in-your-face dilemma. Each and everyday we have a list of things to try and accomplish and with minimal time to focus on any one area, it can feel like a mad rush to get even a partial list completed by days end. I'm sure my list looks like anyone else's, cleaning chores, mealtimes, bedtimes, errands....it really can feel never-ending.
We've all heard the saying, "It's the journey, not the destination..." but how does that apply to daily life and the ubiquitous tasks we undertake to raise our families?
From the mundane (making dinner) to the less occasional (annual doctors appointments) we rush through hoping to swipe a rag along the way and pick up debris scattered about. We hope that our children are tagging along, picking up tidbits of good habits and lifelong skills on the way, but mostly we are just sprinting and wondering all the while, "Where did this past week/month/season/year go?"
Applying the ideal of focusing on the journey, then we can look at dinner not so much as a checkoff but as an event. Instead of trying, in vain, to get things accomplished in spite of having little disaster creators running amok, we can look at it with a different perspective. A typical day of hitting only check marks can be one of using distractions, the tv for instance, while we squeeze in dishes, sweeping, maybe toss a load in the washer, before making snack and calling the kids over to eat and then trying to get them to help clean up, rinse and repeat ad nauseum. Or just loading the kids up and running through the nearest fast food joint to fill their tummies. Yes, this may get us to the same destination at the end of the day, but the journey is sorely lacking. Instead we are trying to focus more on how we can enjoy ourselves and eachother while still getting things accomplished. Today, I wanted to roast some pie pumpkins and while I could've tried to sneak it in and quickly rushed through it while some of the kids were napping, I instead brought the whole family into the experience. For lunch, we brought out all the sandwich items and each made their own, and afterward we all cleaned it up. In the end, each child has a job, each child wants to be a part of the process beginning to end, and each takes pride their work. There is no coercion or bribes or rewards or punishments. It is a lovely time, pouring out slowly like honey, we laugh, we talk, we enjoy eachothers company.
I am saying that multi-tasking is NOT a skill. I say it's not a good thing at all. Take the time to do ONE thing at a time, not 2 or 3. Do each one, do it well, enjoy it. In a world of too much, too fast, just hop off that train and venture into a more relaxed state. Somedays I feel like everyone is running in an opposite direction, how can I possibly keep up? And the answer is so simple, just call your little ducklings back and waddle on your way. If you are running, they cannot keep up with you either!
At the end of the day, maybe not everything gets done, but I can be at peace that what we did get done, was done to completion and the time was spent to the fullest.
