Balance

As a mother, I find that I tend to invest in relationships and activities that I think will be most beneficial to my children and my whole family.  Because my children are important to me, I also tend to be pretty choosy about these relationships and activities.  For our family, an Attachment Parenting group, a neighborhood Mom's Network, and a Toddler Group Co-op have made the cut.

Lately, Evelyn has become enamored by the concept of "home."  She is proud of our house and she loves to recognize the landmarks nearby:  "Here is the farm!"  "This is our street."  "I see our house"  "That's my house!"  She enjoys playing at home or having a friend come over to play.  She loves playing outside with neighbors.  At least half of the time I ask, Evelyn prefers staying at home to going out.  I am choosing to honor her need to be at home.  She creates entire worlds, complete with casts of characters.  She builds cities, draws abstract art, plays trains, and helps cook.

For his part, Henry is happy to be along for the ride, as long as it isn't a car ride.  He is scooting himself around and learning to "army crawl."  Henry loves to be held, to be nursed, and to have an object to feel (or taste, as the case may be).  So, given the needs of my children, we stay home a lot.  If we do go out, we keep the car rides short.

I am realizing, though, that I need to get out more.  It's important to remember that balance is good for every member of the family-- even the parents.  No, this doesn't mean I drag my children out for a forty minute car ride on a whim.  It does mean that I make it a priority to go out to dinner with my husband or to the book store by myself or maybe even to meet a friend for coffee.  Yes, the children are only this little once.  I don't want to take away from my time with them, but I also don't want to be a burned-out lady on auto-pilot.  I want to be fully present and fully myself, and that means putting Mama on the list.