Childhood.
Max: eighteen years.
There is an expiration on childhood.
A deadline.
It's so short, but can feel so long while you are parenting the tough seasons.
It's so easy to overlook an opportunity to read the book a third time, stack the blocks again, or appreciate the colorful painting they made.
It's so easy to just do the next thing. Make breakfast, do the laundry, pack the lunches, pay the bills, file the papers, shop for groceries, sign the schoolwork, prepare a nutritious dinner, do the dishes, put the laundry away, clean the house, tuck them in, go to bed, then wake up and do it all again.
It's so easy to plan the next thing, while working on the thing in front of you, and forget that their days are passing you by.
They are getting a little older.
They are getting a little bigger.
They are paying attention to you.
You are their first hero. The first person who hangs the moon in their eyes.
Believe it or not, if you take this responsibility seriously, you have the opportunity to hold their hearts a little longer, to keep their trust as they walk into middle school and all the peer pressures that go along with it. To be a safe person to come to when something doesn't feel right or there is a conflict between what their friends are saying and what you have taught them.
But it all starts when they are young.
When you feed them when they are hungry, hold them when they need comfort, talk to them when they feel alone, and rock them when they are sleepy.
As they get older, this trust is strengthened when you play with them.
Play doesn't seem important to adults. But it is the work of childhood. It is fundamentally the most important thing your child can do with her time. Through play, your child learns how the world works. She learns about taking turns, following rules, cause and effect, the physical science of gravity and balance, the joy and necessity of sharing, trying something that might fail and finding a solution to a problem. She learns how to work collaboratively with others. How to compromise. And this is beyond the more obvious learning about colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and basic academic things. They learn life skills. They learn how to lose well, and how to be a good winner.
Play is a child's work. It is every bit as important to your child's brain and character development as vitamins and minerals are to their bodies. And while they need to play, they also need their parents to play with them. For a few minutes here and there, you have the power to show them how much they matter, how much their time is important to you, how much you value their work. And you can help shape how they see the world, how they handle challenges, how they compromise or show empathy or share. You guide them to be the best versions of themselves when you come alongside them in their play.
If you have little ones at home, maybe today is a good day to sit in the floor and do the puzzle they want help with or show them how to make the block tower EVEN TALLER than yesterday. The dishes and laundry will wait 10 minutes. Or a few hours. But childhood is a short 18 years, max - and, frankly, nearly a third of that is spent sleeping. Minutes matter. Be intentional about the minutes you have. Make them count.
Max: eighteen years.
There is an expiration on childhood.
A deadline.
It's so short, but can feel so long while you are parenting the tough seasons.
It's so easy to overlook an opportunity to read the book a third time, stack the blocks again, or appreciate the colorful painting they made.
It's so easy to just do the next thing. Make breakfast, do the laundry, pack the lunches, pay the bills, file the papers, shop for groceries, sign the schoolwork, prepare a nutritious dinner, do the dishes, put the laundry away, clean the house, tuck them in, go to bed, then wake up and do it all again.
It's so easy to plan the next thing, while working on the thing in front of you, and forget that their days are passing you by.
They are getting a little older.
They are getting a little bigger.
They are paying attention to you.
You are their first hero. The first person who hangs the moon in their eyes.
Believe it or not, if you take this responsibility seriously, you have the opportunity to hold their hearts a little longer, to keep their trust as they walk into middle school and all the peer pressures that go along with it. To be a safe person to come to when something doesn't feel right or there is a conflict between what their friends are saying and what you have taught them.
But it all starts when they are young.
When you feed them when they are hungry, hold them when they need comfort, talk to them when they feel alone, and rock them when they are sleepy.
As they get older, this trust is strengthened when you play with them.
Play doesn't seem important to adults. But it is the work of childhood. It is fundamentally the most important thing your child can do with her time. Through play, your child learns how the world works. She learns about taking turns, following rules, cause and effect, the physical science of gravity and balance, the joy and necessity of sharing, trying something that might fail and finding a solution to a problem. She learns how to work collaboratively with others. How to compromise. And this is beyond the more obvious learning about colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and basic academic things. They learn life skills. They learn how to lose well, and how to be a good winner.
Play is a child's work. It is every bit as important to your child's brain and character development as vitamins and minerals are to their bodies. And while they need to play, they also need their parents to play with them. For a few minutes here and there, you have the power to show them how much they matter, how much their time is important to you, how much you value their work. And you can help shape how they see the world, how they handle challenges, how they compromise or show empathy or share. You guide them to be the best versions of themselves when you come alongside them in their play.
If you have little ones at home, maybe today is a good day to sit in the floor and do the puzzle they want help with or show them how to make the block tower EVEN TALLER than yesterday. The dishes and laundry will wait 10 minutes. Or a few hours. But childhood is a short 18 years, max - and, frankly, nearly a third of that is spent sleeping. Minutes matter. Be intentional about the minutes you have. Make them count.
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