Slow Down

You have a child that requires near constant attention when they are around. You have got a job that keeps you busy throughout the day. You have to take care of your living space, drive your child to different places, and simply keep things under control. There are some days where you simply do not have enough time to do it all. However, it is also common to try to move too fast to try to get everything done.

Slow down. You are likely moving too fast if you’re oversubscribed in your life. You need to stop trying to get to everything as fast as you can. Sometimes, parts of your life will simply have to be left untouched and not done exactly as you want. For your safety and sanity, and the safety and sanity of the rest of your family, you need to slow down. Moving too fast can lead to mistakes and accidents you don’t want to make.

Recently while trying to leave our house to get to an activity outside the home, we nearly had an accident with our child. We were late for the said activity and thus were trying to rush out of the house and garage. We thought our child was in the car, but they were actually walking around the back of the car. Because we were moving fast, we almost didn’t notice and were inches away from a bad accident.

Driving is one of the main areas where safety can quickly become compromised when you’re trying to move too fast. Whether your child is not in the car and you think they are, or you’re trying to get through a traffic light which you shouldn’t, it’s time to slow things down and make a change. Getting somewhere a few minutes late is far preferable to not making it there at all because of an accident.

When you’re moving too fast in life, you also find it hard to actually enjoy the small and simple moments of parenting. You don’t see your child cleaning up after themselves, you don’t have time for them to hug you, and you don’t take the time to spontaneously play with them. You’re too focused on the next step that you need to take, and how you’re going to fit it all in. Parenting becomes harder when you’re doing too much.

Don’t sign your child up for more extracurricular activities than you should. In our home, each child can have one extracurricular activity at a time going. If they want to do a sport, then they choose one. If they want to take lessons for something, then they can’t do sports at the same time. This keeps both you and your child from going crazy from being so busy - you’ll be busy but not to the point where you’ll go crazy.

Will your child miss out on certain opportunities because they are doing less extracurricular activities? Possibly. But they’ll also gain a better understanding of how to correctly schedule their time so that they’re not constantly running around to different activities with no downtime. You want your child to know how to enjoy some downtime. You need a little bit of downtime to yourself as well.

Slow down in life. Don’t oversubscribe to activities, and keep your family and yourself safe.