I don’t know who else needs to hear this but I definitely need reminding that sometimes it’s okay to do nothing. So here is a reminder from me to you, from one mum to another.
It’s okay to not have plans, it’s okay to not have planned lots of activities for you and your child to do together, it’s okay to stay at home and it’s okay to do just that, absolutely nothing.
Sometimes me and Kory stay home, we don’t go out and we may not do anything in particular or do anything much at all really and this is when I usually make myself feel really bad for that. I often feel guilty and tell myself that Kory is bored and that I should make more of an effort. Even if he isn’t. When in fact, those days when we stay home and just hang out, are the days that Kory enjoys the most!
And today was one of those days.
I hadn’t made any plans for me and Kory and I had no idea where the day was going to take us. We ended up just staying at home, I did some sorting out and some tidying in the morning whilst Kory played with his toys and then me and Kory played together in the garden for the rest of the day and that was it. That’s all we did.
Kory helped tidy the garden with his garden tools, he played with a big bowl of water and some toy cars and he was so excited when he found a slug and a snail too! Which I know might not sound like much – that’s because it isn’t but for a 2 year old, it is enough. Kory actually had a really fun day today.
And do you know what? Sometimes it’s actually quite nice to do nothing.
Life as a mum can get so busy, it would be impossible to do something or go somewhere every day, all of the time. So it’s not that I choose to do nothing because I can’t be bothered, sometimes it’s hard to even find the time to do anything. Most of the time I’m run ragged anyway. I’m taking Kory here or there, I’m trying to make it through my never ending to-do-list as well as taking care of Kory, the pets and the house and not to mention how much it would cost if we were to go out somewhere every day. It just isn’t practical but saying that, it wouldn’t make me a bad parent for choosing to do nothing because I simply felt like I needed to take it easy.
So don’t feel bad if you and your child stay home, don’t punish yourself once they’ve gone to bed because you feel like you could have done more. Use that time to just hang out with each other, with no pressure or expectations and take time to be un-busy. I can promise you that your kids won’t be bored, they’ll appreciate the time that they get to spend with you. Our lives are crazy enough as it is without demanding even more from ourselves.
I’m glad that I wrote this blog post, I catch myself feeling like this quite often whenever me and Kory haven’t done much but the next time that I do feel that way, I’m gonna read this back to myself and remind myself that it’s okay to do nothing! Kory is okay with us doing ‘nothing’ and I need to remember that it’s okay for us to do nothing.
Life as The Lonsdales 