The Age of Reason. The Age of Pleasant Breaks.
Aug 21 2010

As long time readers know, I write about business and parenting and sometimes how the two combine or don’t combine.  Well, this post is about a little bit of both.  My kids, age 8 and 5 1/2, have pretty much reached the age of reason — most days.  Of course there are those times when the term ‘reason’ resonates with no one (including myself) around here, but on most days they are reasonable.  I discovered recently, they have reached the age where they will play together.  I mean, they have played together in the past but they’ve always wanted me involved, didn’t fully agree with what the other wanted to play, wanted to watch TV, or play the Wii.  I’d get frustrated and just tell them to watch TV and then feel like a less than stellar mom for putting them in front of the TV after I’ve had a long day at work and needed some time to catch up with home stuff, organize stuff or even just sit down for a minute!

In the last few weeks, I’ve been able to go tell them to play cards or a board game while I cook, clean, check some emails, or lay down for a bit and they actually listen!  On a couple of occasions, I’ve even had to tell them to wrap up playing if they wanted to watch a little TV before they went to bed.  I don’t know why but I feel much less mom guilt when they play with each other even if they are chasing each other around the house playing tag and I happen to be home base (safety) while I’m trying to do the dishes.  In a weird way, their aging is allowing me to have time to do more things because they entertain themselves.  I knew there was a reason I had two kids because it certainly wasn’t a rational decision at the time given my son didn’t sleep more than a few hours in a row until he was over 4 years old!   When I see them playing, hear them discussing the rules of the game they are about the play, and sorting out their disagreements, my heart smiles, my other troubles disappear for a while, and I think to myself how lucky I truly am.

Author: Aruni | Filed under: parenting | 1 Comment »

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