Monday Murmurings: Activities vs. Me Time

As mom's we want our children to have all the experiences they can have in life. Exploring those activities also involves moms being the taxi, the banker and snack machine for them. Not only are we wanting them to explore the activities, we also explore them by participating in the activity, socializing with the other parents or providing the snacks for the team. I really do not think that is the intent of the activity. I know that children need parent involvement, but sometimes it is too much, between work and home. To be honest, at times I want to be that parent who drops the kid off  at the activity and sometimes socializes with the other parents but gets to enjoy 45 minutes of "me" time. At times, that 45 minutes is needed  to refresh especially with the 50 minutes of prep time used to get to the activity.

I have thought about limiting the number of activities she participated in, but I have also thought with doing that, that I was limiting her.  I do not want to stifle her growth as a person,  her creative juices or  her free spirit of trying.  I am do not think that I should limit her activities, since I am involved in a few myself. So....I have chosen to not to limit her, but to limit myself which moms do all the time. I find pockets of  "me" time during her activities to recharge to get back into mommy-mode.  I just keep reminding myself of the glee I feel as a parent when she is singing a song at church, mastering a new swim stroke or when her annual dance recital comes around.  I want her to be happy and her current activities do. I know that it won't last always and I have 13 years to figure out what to do with my extended "me" time when all her activities end (or they won't end but all I will have to do is show up).