The Challenge of Slowing Down

I need to slow down. Not really for my own benefit, but for my kids' sake. I often say that my children seem to do everything in slow motion. Everything takes twice as long as is should because they are so slow! And Chuck and I constantly find ourselves rushing them along.

The weird thing is, I tend to move slowly at certain times also. And it drives Chuck absolutely crazy. So I guess they come by it naturally. I enjoy taking my time shopping, and it's difficult for me to make decisions at times. This also drives Chuck bonkers! My kids are the same way, and it makes me want to pull my hair out!!!

Lately, I have been trying to mentally slow myself down when I get the urge to hurry them up. It is such a challenge! For instance, the other day I took the boys to the mall while Chuck was out of town. It went fairly well, and we were there forever! We spent 20 minutes in Bath & Body Works smelling practically every bottle of lotion. Normally, I would get what I wanted and get out, but I decided to go with the flow and let them smell to their little hearts' content. And instead of a fight to get them out the door, we happily left when we were done smelling (and nobody gave us dirty looks on the way out!) I let them take their time looking at toys, and making a choice about which snack to buy. But man, did they take forever! On top of that, Aidan wanted my opinion on how to spend his hard-earned garage sale $5, but even when I gave it to him, he still couldn't decide. But we left the Disney store in one piece and very content with our purchases. It was actually quite amazing!

My kids just do things slowly. They get in the van slowly, they eat slowly, they brush their teeth slowly. They transition from one activity to another VERY slowly, they get dressed slowly, and they come slowly when we call them. And we rush them to eat, rush them to get dressed, rush them to get going or we're going to be late (that happens A LOT!), and say their name twenty times (getting louder each time of course) to get them to come to us.

I am trying to slow down. I want to enjoy all the little moments I am missing by rushing them. If nothing comes of this challenge but me calming down and not stressing so much, I will be happy with that. I can't seem to change their turtle personalities, so I might as well embrace it! After, Chuck hasn't been able to hurry me in a store after 10 years. He just avoids shopping with me whenever possible. Since I can't avoid my kids, I might as well enjoy their perspective on life. They tend to notice the little things that I don't. Thank you God for my Pokey Petes!

Cherene