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tick or tock? September 25, 2007

Posted by spacemom in : Parenting 101 , 5 comments

Do you hear the clock ticking during the day?

Do you wonder when you will get it all done?

I often do. Even more so now that Soleil and Luna are in two different places during the day. Soleil is back in our town, 11 miles from work (as the crow flies). Luna is in the next town from our work, 3 miles (as the crow flies). We struggle with the bus drop off, jump in car, get to daycare routine. We struggle with the return routine.

Today, I took my car into the Honda dealer to get serviced. The cute little wrench light came on to alert me it wanted to be serviced. Fortunately, they take service without appointments. Unfortunately, I forgot that Jay has a doctor’s appointment today and needs the car by 12:40. I waited about 2 minutes for the "Courtesy Shuttle" to take me to work. Then I said "Screw it" and walked. It’s only 15 minutes from the dealer to work. I figured it would take 5 minutes of waiting, 5 minutes of driving (assuming the traffic lights stopped us) and I would save 5 minutes and have a larger butt. So I walked. And it was nice. But it made me think about time.

How do you get everything done in the time you have? How do you impress upon your children that time is both important and not?

I don’t want our children to be slaves to the clock. Jay has a distinct memory of kids rushing to choir practice and getting into a car accident because the choir director would lock the door at 5:00pm and if you weren’t there, tough. I don’t want them to do that! But I also want them to respect time and work within it.

I am not sure how to do these things when I struggle myself.

I can’t find ME time. I can’t find time to correctly plan the target object for my code. I can’t find time to exercise. I can’t find time to meditate. I try to find time to play with the girls and I have a rule that I hug them every day. I try to say I love you to the three most important people in my life everyday.

But somehow, I often get stuck with the tick and tocks of life.