Laugh With Moms

I confess, I may have overscheduled my little 7 year old this winter.  Right now he is currently on a travel hockey team, takes skiing lessons once a week and is in his all school play.  It seems like every night is something and sometimes two things in one night.  Last Wednesday, he had to stay after school for play practice and then I had to pick him up and rush him over to his ski lesson.  As we were driving over there, he said, “mom, I am really tired.  Can I not ski today?”  That made me pause, because he never says he is tired.  He is like the Energizer bunny and has no stop switch until he is asleep.  But your inner struggle as a mom starts to work its magic and you quickly go through all the things you are supposed to do in this teachable moment.  We are firm believers in once you start something, you need to finish it.  If you don’t want to do it again next year, then that is fine, but you have to finish what you started.  Also we try to teach the value of money in that mom and dad paid for this activity that you really wanted to do and to miss a lesson is a waste of that hard earned money.  But then I thought, he said he is tired and wants to take a break, so why don’t I just let him take a break while his sister does her ski lesson.  So that is what he did.  He had a snack, did some homework and watched his sister ski, not once regretting his decision.  But I took note of the situation and realized that I have to be more careful what I sign the kids up for and try to stick to my rule of one activity at a time, especially when you have three kids.  There is so much for these kids to do these days and yet sometimes it is nice to just stay at home, eat a nice home-cooked meal and play with all those toys you got for Christmas.  That my be “boring” sometimes, but sometimes boring is good.