Children just don’t know how good they have it. I know I sure didn’t when I was a kid. My children aren’t convinced they have it good because, brace yourselves for this cruelty, they are expected to do some learning (aka: school) and help with their community (aka: chores). Actually, I can’t complain, they are great about those things at least most of the time. According to my children, their friends don’t have to lift a finger. According to my children, the parents of their friends do their laundry, all the house cleaning, all the dishes, and all the boring errands alone. I don’t believe this is true but if it is, oh well. But even with the slave driving they face from us (aka: intrinsic motivation response when we ask for help), I get the impression our children simply don’t appreciate their life style opportunities.
AKA: I’m freaking jealous of my kids.
Why, you may ask? It’s not their incredibly good looks, their limitless energy, the younger ones’ mid day naps (ok, I’m insanely jealous right there but at least sometimes I have to “help” them nap), their beautiful skin, their talent (hey, they got it from somewhere), or even that they are smarter than me. These things don’t make me (too) jealous, nope. I enjoy these things about them.
What makes me green with jealousy, drives me crazy like nails on a chalk board, and evokes internal turmoil on the scale of a 20 month old’s temper tantrum is something I should be celebrating and excited about. Certainly not complaining. Which I’m not. I’m just jealous.
They get to read! Like whole books! Chapters of whole books in one sitting, finishing books in days. I’m happy if I finish a book AT ALL. Ever. It’s not just the working and the cleaning and the cooking and the cuddling. Those are certainly contributing factors and severely limit opportunities to read. The biggest problem? My attention span. Distractions abound but even without them, staying focused has been a challenge. Because as soon as I start reading I struggle to push down all those other things demanding my attention. Or, more likely, when I sit down to “read” I mean “hold a book while I nod off.”
But I want to read because I love to read. I want to read because I want my children to see me reading. I want to read because my mind and my heart expand with reading. So I try. While I’m trying to read, my kids are succeeding at reading.
I’m really not complaining, I’m just jealous.
By the way, I believe reading is important and I want my kids to be avid readers. I also believe knowing how to do laundry, cook, do dishes, clean a toilet, etc. are important as well. Investing in these areas in my children is part of how we invest in their future. Our future. Society’s future. I hope other parents see the importance as well.
In other words: parents, please expect your children to help around the house. And find some time to read.
I’m going to go do some dishes now.
I love to read…but you are right!…It is hard to find the time to read and relax my mind enough to do so. However, over the past week I actually finished half a book and hope to have read it all in another week or so. Glad to be reading again. Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement. (I like the part about kids helping out around the house too!)
I remember those days of endless reading with fondness. The days of not having to figure out what’s for dinner, or wash the dishes again, or get the tires changed before winter.
I’m thankful my parents made me cook. I’m thankful I know how to clean the house (even if I don’t do as good of a job as my mom). I’m glad my parents taught me that a household is a team and you have to work together to be happy.
I think you’re doing it right. Kids always think they have it rough 🙂
My son, 22 months, HATES to sleep and even more so, sleeping alone. Putting him down for naps is at least a 20-30 minute process of nursing, rocking, and cuddling until he’s in the perfect window for laying down. He also doesn’t deal with any attention while needing to fall asleep, he sees that as an invitation to stay awake! My solution is borrowing one of my hubby’s headlamps and using that as my reading time! I can even typically drag it out by making it be everyone’s quiet time and having my daughter play quietly in her room (if only she’d nap too….)! Now to work on everyone working on cleaning up together without me feeling like a slave driver!
I was just sitting here and wondering when I stopping loving to read, and I think it was the advent of social media and the Internet. Even when I do have down time, I choose to surf facebook aimlessly and waste so much time. I need to do a media fast and get back to the way I was before my laptop took over my life! I miss reading :/