Just Being Together

I often get frustrated listening to/reading about/watching moms who are so busy planning play dates, vacations, and signing their kids up for all sorts of clubs and activities that they don't actually just spend time with their kids.  A while back I was reading about a mom who usually runs 100 miles an hour and is always planning all sorts of stuff for herself and her kids.  When she asked her kids what was most important to them this summer, they said, "We just want you to play with us."  It was a sobering comment, and I hope that mom put down her pad of paper of lists of summer activities and realized that kids just want to be together.

As much as I believe in just being with the kids, I fail. Sometimes I forget that things don't have to be planned and perfect.  Things don't have to be "better than so and so."  And {gasp}, not everything has to be immortalized on [digital] film. As moms, we sometimes just need to be in the moment, go with wherever imagination takes us, and just soak up the relationship we have with these little people. They just want to be together.

So after snapping this picture, feeling convicted that even a simple time on the swing wasn't safe from my camera, I set the camera down and breathed deep and soaked in all the sunshine and giggles and simple delights of being 16 months old.  We just need to be together.

Comments

[Daisy]

I sooo agree - other moms couldn't understand why I didn't video tape my daughter's honor roll ceremony. I told them I don't want her looking into the room and seeing a camera instead of my smiling face! There are plenty of times that I just write about something because I didn't want to spoil the spontaneity of it trying to capture it on film. Thanks for backing me up!!

[Toddler swing set]

I have discovered that the best method is to have a camera, videocamera, paintbrush or whatever else you might own, attatched to me at all times just in case there is that perfect photo op not to be missed. My parents have very few pictures of me and my siblings as children and I surely wont follow those mistakes.