children and time .... they go together

Been staring at an A3 cardboard for the past 45 mins .... am supposed to be making a collage about my life for my Lifeline counsellors course, but since my life is mostly an open book and most people can tell you 35 things about me anyway, I am battling to get going.  Probably would need 3 cardboards anyway.  So I swopped that for staring at my computer screen for 30 mins wondering what to blog about, then it hit me .... it always does. 

Children, and more specifically children and how much time their parents spend with them.  Now spend with them means you are not on your phone nodding to them intermittently, you are not reading your book/newspaper/laptop/ipad screen while saying, ya, ya.  You are not working and listening .... you are with them.  Giving them your full attention. 

We are a full attention kind of family in this house.  And we have reaped the benefits in terms of the most amazing open channel of communication between us and our 18 and 14 yr old kids.  Of transparency and trust and sharing.  We do simple stuff ..... we go bowling, or to the movies, we trawl the mall (without the 2 male members of the family), hubby takes Nic and 5 or 6 friends to the schoolgrounds on Sunday afternoons and they play soccer, hockey or cricket .... he takes all the equipment.  Jess and I catch up on our TV, we lie on her bed, we chat.  Last summer we all lay on the trampoline one night under a blanket and watched the stars.  We play cards and a helluva lot of times we simply play silly buggers. Oh and sport .... when we are not supporting one of the kids' sports games, we are following some or other sport on TV. 

I have seen so many families lately where there is big money and little attention.  Where the time not spent with the child is somehow "made up for" by the parents giving them 4 figure amounts for pocket money.
Wake up parents ..... you cannot buy your time with your children.  And very often children then find other ways of filling their time or the empty space left by this lack of attention, and sadly they do not always fill it with wholesome behaviour. 

The time we have with our kids can be so limited, many families nowadays have both parents working, often in more than one job, long hours, busy lives, busy homes.  Before you blink your children are finished in school and their wings are spreading.  So take every moment and savour it, every memory and every breath.  That way when you close your eyes you will have a virtual album of happiness .... and that lasts forever. 

So because I have readers from my old blog on Wordpress wanting me back there, but have built up a nice following here, I have decided simply to post my blogs on both sites ...... now everyone will be happy. 

Till next time,
c'est la vie xxx