When changes happen right under our nose sometimes they are hard to see unless we really look. Like grains of sands moved on the beach by the tide, if we watched for one hour it would be hard to see any changes, after four hours the same, after two days maybe a little, after a month maybe more. Our daily life can be like watching the sand for an hour, change is happening all around us but unless we stop and look we don't see it.
When my eldest was born I well remember folks saying to me treasure every day as they grow up fast, well it is quite fast but if we forget to pause and look we will miss it all. It is one thing to be present with your children and spend quality time with them but it is another to reflect on what they can do today that they could not do yesterday or last week.
I have more time nowadays. I have not added any hours to my day I am just using it as wisely as possible but I also have more time as my children have changed, they want and need time on their own engaging in their own individual play. There has been a gradual slow transition to this state, so gradual that it is only when I was talking to a friend about what I had been making recently that I realised how much I had had time to make, this time a year ago that time would have been utilised differently.
Perhaps I should write it down, what it is they do now so I can look back in the future but then would I read it. Would I rather be using the time in the future for other things. Do you keep records of what your children do, write down conversations or do you just reflect every now and then on the wonderful changes that slowly take place?
I sometimes wish I had more of a record of the things my kids did and the way they altered as they grew, but I also think of the time that record keeping would have taken and the things I might not have done because of it. The problem I have is that with four children and limited notes from back when they were small I can't always remember who did what!
ReplyDeleteWhen they are small toddlers there are many 'times' when they do things they couldn't do yesterday but as they get older we maybe notice less their everyday achievements.
ReplyDeleteI think I use photos to keep records, and the kids never tire of looking a them.
Sometimes friends ask me how I get so much crafting done and I point out that not having a TV helps. As you say, we have the same hours in a day it's just a case of using them wisely.
I keep a little book I write in from time to time; I write it to my children, so perhaps one day they can read it. It came about once the recording of 'milestones' ceased; I thought how I would love to look back at how they have grown, sweet moments that are easily forgotten x
ReplyDeleteIt was really interesting to read this post today, as I sometimes feel so overwhlemed trying to meet the needs of four young children, especially as Jahara is only just two and at that age it is still a very intense time. Your post made me think how this is just one stage of many, and slowly, but surely things will change. x x x
ReplyDeleteYes! Yes! Yes! Write it down! I seem to have so little from when my eldest two (now nearing 19 and 17) were small and really it only feels like an eye's blink since they were as tiny as Anna in my arms now!
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, one of my other regrets is that, for very many years, I was very camera shy (to the extreme that I think there's only about 2 photos from when I was 15 or 16). One day someone told me that, in years to come, my children would treasure photos of me, as I now treasure photos of various family members who have now passed on.
For some reason, this has been in my thoughts far more since Anna was born (maybe because I realise that she is very likely to be the last of my children - and that, in itself, is a bittersweet moment). x