Thursday, January 17, 2013

In the beginning

When my son was born 6 years ago I never imagined how difficult it would be. The thought of keeping my child entertained as well as educated and healthy was of little concern as I was holding that tiny baby. Well here I am 6 years later fighting daily to not only keep him entertained, healthy, educated, as well as happy, creative, caring, etc etc. Added to this I am now a single working mother. . I feel though that you deserve to know the truth. I was not a perfect mother nor am I now. Going through my divorce was traumatic for everyone involved especially for my son. He began acting out terribly. His anger and sadness was consuming his 4 year old mind and turning my sweet boy into an angry monster. I was selfishly running from it pushing it away by sitting him in front of the TV or computer for hours just to keep him happy. This is common and I know plenty of you could relate. It was ridiculous how I acted and I am ashamed when I think about it. I look back and remember how I would dread dealing with his outbursts and avoidance mixed with my depression it was overwhelming. Yet when he would go with his dad for those few days I would bawl and drink to make the pain go away.  However, after a lot of soul searching I decided instead of playing the cliche victim I kicked myself in the ass and decided to put my full focus on making sure my child was first. Basically what I'm trying to explain and to make a long story short no one is perfect. I want you to know I am not an illusion and I don't want you to feel hopeless when you read my blog and think "I could never be creative like that".
I know in this day of Pinteresting some of us working parents feel overwhelmed with the impending doom of being educationally creative. Sure I'd love to make all 860 pins I have stayed up into the wee hours of the night pinning. I'd be ecstatic to make bento box lunches for my son with cute hand cut sandwiches and veggies. I'd adore to create homemade edible playdough and matching custom tie dyed shirts. Alas life is busy and between my full time job and my sons full day at school it just doesn't seem there are enough hours in the day. However in this busy world we sacrifice time with our families far too much. I had an epiphany one evening while pinning various pins. "How am I utilizing my time with my son efficiently?" Well I'm sure it wasn't that eloquent in my mind. I began rehashing where I struggled with my sons diet especially when he is at his fathers. I know it probably consists of chicken nuggets and junk food, I'd rather not think too deeply about it. My son is very smart but most parents say that about their child. He has a hunger for books and learning. I wanted to incorporate both education and family time in some kind of an activity. This is where my mother and I came up with our first idea Friday family fun night. I will explain this more in another entry. This worked great and brought back the old time traditions of family interaction. We soon approached the trying new foods problem. That is where Wednesday World Wonder night came from. This has been a huge success and my life feels a little more complete having these 2 days designated for time with my son and possibly utilizing some of the Pinterest ideas.
So here it is in basic form how I began having more of an interactive role with my child. I wont bore you anymore with my ramblings and I will begin typing the next segment which will feature Wednesday World Wonder night in its entire form. Thank you for taking time to read this it really is your first step to being a great influence in your kiddos/families life!
Laura

2 comments:

  1. What a great idea Laura!! I think more families need to sit around a table and talk! Thanks for starting this AWESOME blog!

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    1. Thank you Heather! Hopefully this will inspire people to do just that!

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