Day 17: The opportunity to make space for little

My kids seemed to really just need a day at home to veg out.

We played hard together -- legos, hex bugs, toy cars, and 300 pages of a novel about dragons.

Our little tribe.

I thought about all the other little tribes out there. Playing legos and building train track.
I thought about the daunting task that parents face as they think about homeschooling kids for 2 weeks and the posts I see on social media as people gather ideas, share schedules and talk about what they are a going to do.

I am not sure if I've ever seen so much detail about parenting and education so widely shared.

It's a sort of forced re-arrangement of our priorities -- or at least forcing us to connect more deeply with our littles. To teach them. To spend time with them. To get to know them.

There is a lot of downside economically and otherwise to this pandemic situation but one amazing beautiful upside is the amount of space that many people will have to deeply bond with their little tribe.

It is exhausting and stressful. Kids yell. Cabin fever is real.
It f-ing hurts to step on legos and when you are solving one thing --
someone else has colored on the walls or pooped on the floor.
Messes suck. Cleaning over and over again is exhausting.
And why can't they just ask a question or say your name once ... mom, mom, mom, mom, mom...

And...
There still is work to be done beyond just caring for the littles....
because emails still happen, so do phone calls, teleconferences and deadlines....and bills.

But there is opportunity.
Opportunity to share my world and my work with them.
Opportunity to work on patience and creativity.
Opportunity to teach sorry and I forgive you and show that I am a human too.
Opportunity to work on things that busy life cuts time from -- like chores and cooking and art and play.
Opportunity to explore the world coming to life in the spring.
Opportunity to really listen to those little voices and let them feel heard and not rushed.

If we lean into the opportunity, we may find our hearts changed and our littles shaped by this time together.

I'll be praying for you...