Today was one of those days where I would have been wise to heed my own advice. How many of us, when we have time and space to do so, think of wonderful ways to approach parenting and then as soon as the kids wake up the next morning and we are launched into action promptly forget them? It happens to me more often than I would like to admit, and it happened today.
Last night, I was really thinking about ways to focus on maintaining a strong connection with my boys throughout the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I even wrote a blog post about it. Today I had a difficult day, especially in regards to dealing with my three year old’s behavior. After the boys were tucked into bed, I took a moment to reflect on why I may have had such a difficult time today. One possible cause of the difficulties was that I did not provide Dylan with any “special time”.
Lately, at least once a day while Blake naps, I spend one on one time with Dylan playing or doing whatever he wants to do. That is our “special time”, and I think that it makes a difference in how connected he feels to me and thus how he behaves throughout the entire day. Today, I went right from making breakfast to supervising a play date for Dylan and his friend (while caring for Blake as well), to taking Dylan to a doctor’s appointment, to having dinner out with the boys and my sister in law. By the time all was said and done, it was just about time for our nightly “quiet time” to begin.
Fortunately, even though I did not realize at the time that I had not made specific time to connect with Dylan, I inadvertently did so by agreeing to bake cat treats with him instead of reading or watching a video for “quiet time”. That activity seemed to pave the way to a peaceful transition into bed time, and it probably sparked my later realization that connection throughout the day is very important in order for us to have a more positive experience all day long. Tomorrow is a new day, and although I have a lot of things that I would like to accomplish, I must remember to maintain a close connection with each of the boys so that we can all have a better day.