Take Time to Smell the Flowers

Scheduling some flexibility into your day as a parent can allow you the freedom to enjoy the magic and enthusiasm of child's play.

Walking anywhere with a toddler can be a serious expedition, and is often a journey that can take two, three or even four times longer than it would have taken me to walk at my regular pace. Sometimes this is a source of frustration and frayed nerves, especially if I'm late for an appointment, but it doesn't have to be a negative experience. Recently I've found that making an extra effort to be patient and schedule time for the "toddler pace" can be wonderful gift that shows me things I wouldn't have otherwise enjoyed.

Children love to stop and smell the flowers, run up and down wheelchair ramps, climb stairs for the fun of it and spin around in circles until they fall down laughing hysterically. These things are fun, but as adults we are so focused on getting from Point A to Point B in enough time so that we can get to Point C before they close that we miss out on a lot of the magic in everyday life.

A real appreciation for that magic, and the ability to step into the open, playfully enthusiastic perspective of children is a great resource for parents to pull out on those days when patience is short and tempers flare.

Appreciating that your children want to stop and play at the park all day doesn't mean that you have to set aside your needs and schedule entirely so they can run around with flowers in their hair. Parents do have valid needs and often a tight schedule is unavoidable, but if your child wants to hold buttercups under your nose and you've got five or ten minutes to spare, why not stop and smell the flowers?