After watching an inspirational DVD called "To A Child, Love is Spelled "T-I-M-E", I put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard with some thoughts I hope will encourage you to think about how you view your time spent with your children.
So often we take for granted the time that we have to spend with our children and sometimes we even complain that they demand too much of our time.
In today's age, many parents have less time to spend with their families due to work commitments, and the long hours necessary to simply earn a living.
Think back to time you have spent with your children, or grandchildren over the years.
Do you remember how it felt in that moment to be spending the time with them? Was it a feeling of love, happiness, enjoyment, bliss, excitement? How about pure appreciation that you had that time to spend together? And you were able to leave your responsibilities at home, the cooking, cleaning, shopping for dinner, business matters, and all the other things you would have liked to achieve that day - you left them all at home, and just took your son or daughter out for some good quality time with no feelings of guilt, no nagging thoughts about those things that still needed to be done.
You were able to completely connect with your inner child, relax and enjoy your time together.
Right? You were so engrossed in that time that nothing else in the world mattered.
In fact it had become cold and the sun had set and still..
..
home, work, friends, other responsibilities were still locked up at home waiting for you.
You hadn't cast a thought about what you were going to cook for dinner, make for school lunches tomorrow, the fact that the uniforms were still sitting wet in the washing machine and wouldn't be ready for the morning.
Nothing but complete focus and attention on your child and your activities, whatever they may be.
Honestly, ask yourself, can you remember times like these? Possibly you may, and that's great, but for the most part time spent with your child or other loved ones often feel like a burden, a chore, feeling that your time is better spent elsewhere at that moment.
It's unfortunate, and you may feel guilty even to think of this but where life is so hectic and fast paced, I find this is often the case among most parents I speak to today.
And that causes a lot of guilt and tension in families, with stressed, parents and confused children.
Of course, it's not a situation of not wanting to spend and enjoy the time, but simply the pressures we place on ourselves to 'have everything in order'.
I don't know about you but I sometimes find my priorities to be out of order.
Where things first need to be achieved, set in place, then I can relax and spend all the time in the world with the kids.
But what if you don't have all the time in the world? Nobody knows how much time one has left on this earth.
It reminds me of a quote "If you are waiting for the timing to be right before you begin, you will never begin.
" We all have responsibilities and chores to attend to on a daily basis, like washing, cooking and the rest, but to forget about all of this every now and again, on a regular basis, is it going to hurt anyone? Regularly choosing those responsibilities over spending time with your children or loved ones could however, cause you much pain and guilt.
Not to mention how it will negatively impact your child's self worth and sense of love and security.
Ask yourself next time, is that pain worth it just to get the washing done? Perhaps, the choices we make reflect poorly our values and time management skills.
That is only for ourselves to determine, but imagine the positive impact on ourselves, and our children if we were able to get our priorities in order with our values and learn to manage our time better.
On that final note, decide what it is you are going to change or sacrifice, in order to spend more T-I-M-E with your child today.
So often we take for granted the time that we have to spend with our children and sometimes we even complain that they demand too much of our time.
In today's age, many parents have less time to spend with their families due to work commitments, and the long hours necessary to simply earn a living.
Think back to time you have spent with your children, or grandchildren over the years.
Do you remember how it felt in that moment to be spending the time with them? Was it a feeling of love, happiness, enjoyment, bliss, excitement? How about pure appreciation that you had that time to spend together? And you were able to leave your responsibilities at home, the cooking, cleaning, shopping for dinner, business matters, and all the other things you would have liked to achieve that day - you left them all at home, and just took your son or daughter out for some good quality time with no feelings of guilt, no nagging thoughts about those things that still needed to be done.
You were able to completely connect with your inner child, relax and enjoy your time together.
Right? You were so engrossed in that time that nothing else in the world mattered.
In fact it had become cold and the sun had set and still..
..
home, work, friends, other responsibilities were still locked up at home waiting for you.
You hadn't cast a thought about what you were going to cook for dinner, make for school lunches tomorrow, the fact that the uniforms were still sitting wet in the washing machine and wouldn't be ready for the morning.
Nothing but complete focus and attention on your child and your activities, whatever they may be.
Honestly, ask yourself, can you remember times like these? Possibly you may, and that's great, but for the most part time spent with your child or other loved ones often feel like a burden, a chore, feeling that your time is better spent elsewhere at that moment.
It's unfortunate, and you may feel guilty even to think of this but where life is so hectic and fast paced, I find this is often the case among most parents I speak to today.
And that causes a lot of guilt and tension in families, with stressed, parents and confused children.
Of course, it's not a situation of not wanting to spend and enjoy the time, but simply the pressures we place on ourselves to 'have everything in order'.
I don't know about you but I sometimes find my priorities to be out of order.
Where things first need to be achieved, set in place, then I can relax and spend all the time in the world with the kids.
But what if you don't have all the time in the world? Nobody knows how much time one has left on this earth.
It reminds me of a quote "If you are waiting for the timing to be right before you begin, you will never begin.
" We all have responsibilities and chores to attend to on a daily basis, like washing, cooking and the rest, but to forget about all of this every now and again, on a regular basis, is it going to hurt anyone? Regularly choosing those responsibilities over spending time with your children or loved ones could however, cause you much pain and guilt.
Not to mention how it will negatively impact your child's self worth and sense of love and security.
Ask yourself next time, is that pain worth it just to get the washing done? Perhaps, the choices we make reflect poorly our values and time management skills.
That is only for ourselves to determine, but imagine the positive impact on ourselves, and our children if we were able to get our priorities in order with our values and learn to manage our time better.
On that final note, decide what it is you are going to change or sacrifice, in order to spend more T-I-M-E with your child today.