Taking my kids anywhere right now, feels like a major task. Yes, I have three kids, ages five and under. Three car seats to buckle, three bodies to put into place and three temperaments to navigate, at any given time. However, I have things to do, places to go and tasks to accomplish. If I am lucky, maybe just maybe the stars will align that will allow me to get my errands completed with kids in tow. The only problem here is that I am always in a hurry, thinking of the next thing on my list.
Kids at this age love to live in the present moment and THIS is why they stress me out! We just don’t seem to see eye to eye when it comes to the pace at which I would like us to move!
Why am I always rushing around in a hurry? Admittedly, I feel like I am better prepared for my next step by completing task at hand in an expeditious manner. I feel a rush of excitement when I get more items on my to do list completed. Basically I think that the faster I move the more I will get done. Easy logic right? This is great in theory…when you don’t have kids.
Once kids come in to the picture….forget it! I am continually learning this painful lesson. Let’s see…when do I like to hurry them along? I think my average morning goes like this…
“Hurry up, get dressed! Come ON! Let’s go…brush your teeth! Get downstairs, hurry up and eat! Three more bites and you’ll be done…FINALLY!
Now, come ON, don’t spill, and get that bowl to the sink fast! Clean your hands immediately! TURN OFF THE WATER you are taking too long!
Hurry up, get those shoes on! No not like that, switch feet…HURRY! Let’s go, let’s go! .GET . IN. THE. CAR!!!. No not that door…in YOUR car seat! Sit down, hurry up, why are you so slow?”
And this is all before 8am. Why am I in a hurry?
Are my pants on fire? Thankfully, no!
Does Starbucks close at 8:00 AM? Nope!
Am I running late to work? Nope, not yet.
I am rushing because that is how I always operated…without thinking.
Recently I paused (long enough to really think about this) and realized, I am rushing my kids around for no good reason. It was stressing me out and teaching my kids to always be hurrying and stressed.
So knowing I had to do something, I took my own advice (Using ‘What If?’ to Your Benefit. ” and asked myself ‘what if” I was NOT in a hurry.’
How would we move? Would I ever get to Starbucks? Would we ever get anywhere? What would the stress level be in the car? Where would MY stress level be?
When I purposefully decided to slow down (and had to remind myself constantly) I became less stressed. I was shocked at how difficult it was because I was always trying to hurry things up without thinking! My knee jerk reaction to hurry dissipated the longer I was moving slower….in fact, a person might say I was soon moving according to my kid’s pace…and while that might seem S L O W and unproductive to me…it’s just perfect to them and their little arms and legs! And I became oddly more comfortable with our new slower pace!
Do you find yourself hurrying along, for no good reason? Try to follow your children’s pace, just once, and see what surprising benefits may await you!
