The Day I said ‘Yes’ to Legos

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As a mama, you’re pulled in a million directions… when I was working, it was the guilt of being away from my babies. When I became a stay-at-home-mama, it was that I wasn’t using my degree. It’s a never-ending cycle of guilt that we as mom’s put on ourselves. The house isn’t clean enough. The cookies aren’t homemade enough. The projects are pinterest-able enough. You aren’t enough.

Sitting in church on Sunday morning, I listened as our pastor challenged us as parents to take a one on one challenge in honor of a 12 year old boy in our church who had passed away recently. Walk one mile, with one child. No phones, no distractions, just quality time to spend with one little at a time.  

His words sat heavy on my heart… how many times have my daughters asked me to follow them to their playroom and I have said, “Not right now, mama’s doing dishes…”  “Not right now…” “Not right now…”  

If there is one thing I have learned it’s that time is short. Life is taken in the blink of an eye… and. to. be. present. That’s easy to say when listening to the tragedies that take our babies too soon. In that moment…there is never enough time. But what about the day to day? The laundry has to be done. Dinner has to be cooked. Dishes have to be done. So how do you find the balance??

I certainly don’t have all of the answers and most days, I fail miserably in one way or another. That Sunday, I was driving home thinking about my to-do list awaiting me. My husband had been out of town all weekend and when he was home had had meetings that brought him home later at night. I had basically been a single parent to twin toddlers {and another on the way} and there was a lot I wanted to get done before he got back from a weekend away. We get home and I pulled another load of laundry out of the dryer and sat the basket down to start folding when a little hand grabbed mine with the sweetest, ‘Mama, c’mon…wegos {legos}’. I instantly responded, “Sweetie, I will in a bit… but mama has to fold laundry right now…” I watched her toddle back to her legos with her sis and my heart instantly started to ache. 

So, I said, ‘Yes.’

I sat down on the floor and we started building. One block after another, we built, we crashed, we scooped and poured. We started a balancing game carrying legos on our heads, practiced our colors and taking turns. It wasn’t complicated, it wasn’t brain science…but it turned into something so much more.

The laundry will still be there. The dishes…yep, I promise they’re there. I’m not saying those things aren’t important or that your children shouldn’t see you do those things. But every once in awhile, you have to say, ‘Yes’ to the legos.

‘If you want your kids to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money.”

– Abigail Van Buren

2 COMMENTS

  1. I love this. I’ve been trying to be more present with my kids too. Like, why do i say no to playdoh?? It’s just playdoh! And, if not, why the heck do we even have it!? LOL

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