Invest now
Let’s face it, the childhood chant of, 'I'm bored!' soon dampens even the greatest resolve. School holidays are a mixture of excitement and trepidation, for parents and children alike. But if you think about it, in the grand scheme of things, there aren't going to be many chances to enjoy holidays with your kids before they are grown up. There isn't an endless supply of time to build those important memories before they have left home and have children of their own. And there aren't going to be many Bonfire Nights, treasure hunts, birthday parties, trips to the cinema, conker collecting sessions and Christmas Eve’s when your child will want to be with you. So the task of every wise parent is to grasp firmly with both hands every opportunity you have during these fleeting childhood years.
Even for those of us whose children haven't yet been elevated to the dizzy heights of school days it’s no different. Time, for a toddler, works completely differently than it does for an adult. We prioritise. We think in terms of, 'Oh I don't have time for that now so I'll do it tomorrow or next week.' Toddlers simply don't think like this! We assume that we'll be around for many years to come, but for a toddler, 'later on' is usually 'too late'. Life is immediate. When a toddler wants you to play with them, or show you something that is fascinating them, they mean they want you to see it now or play now. When was the last time you heard a toddler say something like, 'Oh sorry, you're busy, I'll come back later'? It simply doesn't happen! Everyone quickly learns when they first become parents that a toddler finds something new to do and something exciting to see every few minutes. Their attention span is so short that things are usually either now or not at all. A young child doesn't suffer from information overload. They soak life up like a sponge. They want to do everything, see everything and be everywhere - now!
A friend of mine recounts how every night his son David, used to insist on him retelling him a Superman story. The same Superman story. All twenty pages of it — night, after night, after night! Naturally to an adult the monotony was excruciating and my friend would sometimes even pretend that he was too busy. But David loved it, he couldn't wait and if his dad forgot any of the details he was quick to jump in and fill in the gaps. Then suddenly one evening, without warning, David announced before bedtime, 'I don't want you to tell me that story anymore. It's boring.' Then it was dad's turn to be upset because, he realised that he would never have the privilege of telling his son that story again. It was simply no longer important to David. He was growing up.
There will come a day when your children won't ask you to read to them any more, or want to sit on your lap and fall asleep, or play football with you, or ask if you'll help them mend their bike. And strange as it may seem, all the things you struggle with now, you'll long for then. There'll be days when you desperately want to read them a story — every word, all the way through! You'll wonder why you ever found reading The Bumper Book of Bedtime Stories (for the twenty-seventh time) so boring that you cheated and turned over three pages at once.
TIP: Our children will be grown up before we know it, so take the opportunity to invest in their lives now.
Even for those of us whose children haven't yet been elevated to the dizzy heights of school days it’s no different. Time, for a toddler, works completely differently than it does for an adult. We prioritise. We think in terms of, 'Oh I don't have time for that now so I'll do it tomorrow or next week.' Toddlers simply don't think like this! We assume that we'll be around for many years to come, but for a toddler, 'later on' is usually 'too late'. Life is immediate. When a toddler wants you to play with them, or show you something that is fascinating them, they mean they want you to see it now or play now. When was the last time you heard a toddler say something like, 'Oh sorry, you're busy, I'll come back later'? It simply doesn't happen! Everyone quickly learns when they first become parents that a toddler finds something new to do and something exciting to see every few minutes. Their attention span is so short that things are usually either now or not at all. A young child doesn't suffer from information overload. They soak life up like a sponge. They want to do everything, see everything and be everywhere - now!
A friend of mine recounts how every night his son David, used to insist on him retelling him a Superman story. The same Superman story. All twenty pages of it — night, after night, after night! Naturally to an adult the monotony was excruciating and my friend would sometimes even pretend that he was too busy. But David loved it, he couldn't wait and if his dad forgot any of the details he was quick to jump in and fill in the gaps. Then suddenly one evening, without warning, David announced before bedtime, 'I don't want you to tell me that story anymore. It's boring.' Then it was dad's turn to be upset because, he realised that he would never have the privilege of telling his son that story again. It was simply no longer important to David. He was growing up.There will come a day when your children won't ask you to read to them any more, or want to sit on your lap and fall asleep, or play football with you, or ask if you'll help them mend their bike. And strange as it may seem, all the things you struggle with now, you'll long for then. There'll be days when you desperately want to read them a story — every word, all the way through! You'll wonder why you ever found reading The Bumper Book of Bedtime Stories (for the twenty-seventh time) so boring that you cheated and turned over three pages at once.
TIP: Our children will be grown up before we know it, so take the opportunity to invest in their lives now.
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