My Boy

It was late Friday night. His hockey games had just ended, and he smelled like it. I hadn’t had dinner, my head was pounding, and I wanted to go home. But I knew it wasn’t to be. We had a plan, and as we left the rink, his happy chatter switched from hockey to the date time that we had in front of us.

A quick drive across town (It’s Fairbanks – I do mean quick, and I do mean across town.) found me parking the car near Barnes and Noble and GameStop. We encountered a moment’s frustration when it was discovered that we had left the GameStop trade-ins in a different bag, but we both decided it was not something over which to ruin our night. We took a quick tour through GameStop where I was shown all the newest wants, and then we proceeded to Barnes and Noble.

With pretzels and tea in hand (no sweets or coffee despite the craving because…ya know…it’s Lent), we sat down at a two-person table. Then, he began. My lovely, darling, 8-year-old, EXTROVERTED boy opened his mouth to talk, and he did not stop for 45 minutes. I heard about hockey. I heard about Minecraft. I made eye contact, and I left my phone in my purse.

You have to understand my almost complete lack of interest in these two topics to understand how extremely difficult it was to sit still. The only reason I care about them at all is because they are important to him. As I sat there listening, it occurred to me how often I, and his sisters, cut him off during the week. We are always busy, and there always seems to be a need for quiet or for more important topics and ideas to be discussed. As I watched him light up and share, my heart broke a little.

When did I get so busy? When did I forget to slow down and notice him growing? When did the stuff of life get more important than the people in my life? The truth of it is that, with my personality, my list of things to do was, is, and will continue to be very important to me. Knowing this about myself, I need to put dates with the kids consistently back on my list of things to do. These times remind me to show them how much I care about them individually. They have the added benefit, in the case of my boy, of reducing the word output…for at least a few days.

How about you? Do you need to pause in the midst of loving and growing your children so that you can remember to like them and enjoy them as well?

Theodore Roosevelt was correct when he said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” May we all live this with and for our children as we proceed with the journey of homeschooling.