As parents, how many of us get stuck in the same old
routine? Here’s how it seems to go in my house – my wife and I go to work, we come
home and make dinner, baths for the kids, some bedtime reading, put the kids to
bed, clean the house and more times than not we get back on online and try to
get a couple of hours of work done. Does this sound familiar?
It usually takes a special circumstance for us to break our
routine – something like our kids having friends over, going to a friends’
house for dinner or heading out to see the grandparents. While routines aren’t
necessarily bad, they also don’t help spur any creativity. So this weekend we’re
going to try to break out of our normal routine – it is after all summer
vacation.
Dinner tonight is going to be opposite night. Breakfast
seems to be the preferred meal for our kids, so we’re going to suggest that we
have breakfast for dinner. After our breakfast/dinner instead of getting ready
for bed and reading books, we’re going to head down to a local outdoor shopping
area that has a summer concert series. Rather than feel like we need to rush to
accomplish something, we’ll do a little dancing, maybe have some ice cream and
just enjoy the time together.
Tomorrow is the big day! While it may not end up being
successful I’m going to try and have a sleep over with my two older girls. The
catch is… we’re going to camp in the backyard. Tent, air mattress, sleeping
bags, flashlights, the works - well, not the full works, we'll forgo the camp fire, I don't think my local fire department would approve. And I figure if they aren’t ready for the outdoors we can always
bring the tent in the house and set it up in the playroom.
I think that one of the biggest problems for kids and adults is that our lives have become too structured - even our play is planned and choreographed. What are some of the ways that you break your daily routine? And I'm not just talking to the parents out there.
Jason
