Guest Blogger

For the first time in a long time, I took two full weeks off over the holidays. No school, no extracurricular activities, no caregiver. Just family time, all the time. Living on my kids’ level helped me gain some perspective and a new appreciation for my family that I’m determined to carry forward in 2010.

1. The closer you are to the ground (hierarchically speaking), the slower time passes. Have you ever frantically glanced at the clock and wondered how it was possible that four hours went by so damned quickly? Yeah, that doesn’t happen so much in kid world. From the first bite of cereal each morning to the last bedtime story at night translates to roughly one week in adult time. Whether they’re experiencing the rapturous joy of a good tickle fight or the slow torture of finishing every last green bean, kids are fully engaged in each moment. There’s a beauty in that and I want to live that way.

2. Blackberries really are the devil. Well, not really. But they do represent an uncomfortable truth about the disrespect we show our kids (not to mention each other). Have you ever seen your child’s face as you tell her to “hold on just a sec” while you quickly “check something”? I have and it’s heartbreaking. Sometimes answering a call or banging off a quick email in the middle of family time is unavoidable, but the last thing I want to do ever again is accidentally send a message that my kids are insignificant.

3. The dust bunnies look bigger when you’re sitting on the floor, but you don’t care. I chose sanity over an overstyled and sanitized house a long time ago, but I have to admit that the layer of dust on the bookshelves occasionally makes me shudder. Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing my kids a disservice by not being more hygienically disciplined, but after some hard time spent playing games, reading and just hanging out on the floor, it was confirmed: they don’t give a damn. So neither do I. 

4. The older your kids get, the more fun life is. Now that we no longer have to lug around diaper bags, sippy cups and strollers or schedule our lives around afternoon naps, it feels like the heavens have parted and we’re living in a new world. With a six and almost-four-year-old, it’s possible to tell them to play in their rooms while we catch a few extra winks in the morning, read engaging books (with plots!), go skating and actually get to skate and sit silently in a room together, each engrossed in our own thing. I knew we’d turned a corner when I found myself releasing my iron grip on the non-negotiable bedtime. Freedom!

Is it wrong to already be looking forward to summer vacation? 

Heather Hudson is a freelance writer, personal historian and regular contributor to SweetMama. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two kids.