Life Lessons

The girls are gone again, and here I am doing my first of 5 long shifts while they’re away.
Overall I’d have to say our first week of summer together went well.
We went swimming twice, spent a great deal of time with cousins, went to Layton to visit Taylor’s family, (got to spend a short time at Megan’s), and spent literally hours upon hours in the backyard. By Friday the kids, I think, had had enough and were becoming monsters. Ali could NOT stop fidgeting and jumping off things in the house. She could not sit still for anything. I’m willing to bet that if I had followed her into the bathroom she wasn’t sitting still then either!
Megan whined incessantly all day long over nothing. She fell apart over the minutest things. I think they’d had enough sun because they both chose to stay inside for most of the day.
Ali wrote a story (in between the jumping, rolling, and flailing she was doing). She loves writing and especially loved insisting that she read to me every other sentence that she wrote. I tried patiently to listen but that along with Megan’s persistent whining and falling apart was enough to send me over the edge. I could barely breath without one of them two inches from my face demanding my full attention! As much as I knew I would miss them when they left, I couldn’t help glancing out the window to see if Ex was there yet. I still have headache today. A small hangover from the monsters they were yesterday. Sometimes I think maybe I put too much emphasis of “doing” when they’re home. That’s what life is now … Go Go Go Go go.. Instant entertainment. TV’s in Mini Vans, Video games that fit in your pocket, there is something to ‘keep you busy’ everywhere you look these days. .. Megan will insist and whine that she is bored twenty five times an hour if she has no one to entertain her. That’s my fault I’m sure. I created this world where I plan and ‘do’ all the time…. My Mom overheard her mention that she was bored the other night.. (This after we had just swam in the pool for two hours). My Mom asked me “were You ever bored in the summer?”.. It was interesting to look back and reflect on my summers as a kid. We had ‘chores’ to do every day before we were able to play. Weeding the yard, vacuuming the house, sweeping out the garage….. When we were done we appreciated the time because we had worked for it. We rode our bikes around the neighborhood or made elaborate Barbie worlds on the front lawn. Sure, we were probably ‘bored’ once in a while, but that’s what we did.. We used our imaginations, we made up games, and we entertained ourselves…
I regret that we don’t have a good neighborhood for the girls to run around in.. We live on a street with no other children, no sidewalks, and cars that don’t watch out for children as they go speeding around the bend.. Maybe I’ve over compensated for that?
I know I overcompensate for the fact that I share half of their summers with their Dad. I plan, plan, plan so that the time we have together is “fun” and memorable. So then I think, is it too late to teach them to appreciate their time? I still enjoy doing things and going places with them, but I do want them to realize that spending a day lounging around the house can be quite refreshing (without hearing “I’m Bored 15 million times).
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