The Gift of My Time

Mom, will you play with me?


There is a pile of laundry that has been sitting on my couch for a few days.  I can hear it taunting me every time I turn around, "You haven't folded me yet?  Your poor husband is going to have wrinkled work clothes again!"  


If it's not the laundry, then it's the dishes all piled in my sink.  When it's not the dishes, then it's the toys and clothes scattered throughout the house.  And when it's not those little items under foot, it's the greasy cupboards and sticky door handles and handprinted windows throughout the house.  They all beg for me to clean them up, and for years I have wondered how people manage their homes and spend quality time with their children?!


My kids are constantly asking, "Mom, watch this!"  "Mom, look how I can do this!"  "Mom, can you come outside and see my new trick?"  And what is my automatic response, "Yes, in just a minute....let me just do this one thing and then...."  And the guilt just hangs over me at night, after they've all gone to bed and I realize that I never kept my word to spend time with them that day.  I've yet to find the answer to balancing these two important aspects of parenthood, but the thing I remind myself of is this:

1. One day, they will be too busy for me.
2. One day, they won't ask me to play.
3. My house will keep getting messy, so why not play for a while?

Unfortunately, I'm not always good at doing #3, but yesterday I did.

My kids kept asking me to play and I started giving my normal answer about "Okay, just let me do this one more thing...."  And I thought, "Forget the house.  I'm going outside."  My 5-year-old showed me this  freeze tag game that he and my other son play, using a ball to tag each other.  We were running, laughing, high-fiving each other and before I knew it, an hour had gone by and it was time for me to get dinner started.  I could tell that my kids wanted me to keep playing, so I did for a little longer before going back inside to cook dinner.

But I loved our time playing - once I loosen up and forget about my household jobs, I really enjoy our time just being together.  I just wonder why it's so hard for me to walk away from household chores - something that will never love me back - in order to be with my kids? 

It is a gift for all involved.