switched off

One of the little downsides of summer with small children

is that the lighter mornings often mean earlier wake ups.

Our children are, on the whole, fantastic sleepers,

but some mornings they get disturbed by the over enthusiastic dawn chorus

and the fact that it looks like midday by 6am.

Anytime after 6am I can just about deal with,

after 7am is the norm,

and any time with a 5 at the beginning is still night time if you ask me.

So a 5.10am wake up call was really not what I wanted

particularly when I'd already been disturbed at 4.40am

by a husband on the way out of the door on his way to Paris for the day.

The little man who gave me the 5.10am alarm clock,

also managed to disturb his sister,

so by 5.25am our day was starting,

and I felt like I'd just gone to bed.

Luckily we had a lazy day ahead,

and I decided there and then,

as I opened the curtains

and looked out at all my neighbours' homes with theirs still firmly shut,

that I would not let this beat me.

Yes I was going to be parenting solo right through until bedtime,

and bedtime was still a loooong way away,

but good days with my little ones are all about positive mental attitude.

No TV, I decided.

It becomes background noise in our house all too often.

We would play with their many toys instead.

There would be educational games,

and fun games.

And they would help me with household jobs.

We would listen to music.

Dancing and singing would be on our agenda.

As would a trip to feed the ducks.

I would be a happy mum,

and I would have happy kids.

And do you know what, it worked.

My super long day flew by in a flash.

When my beautiful girl fell asleep for her nap

three hours too early,

I didn't worry, I went with the flow.

When my beautiful boy asked me to help him write 100 different words,

I obligingly spelled them out for him,

praised his hard work and corrected his letter formation.

I didn't rush from the dinner table

to hurry them into the bath,

instead I did a lot of dancing involving jazz hands

to keep the little lady happy while her slow eating brother finished his meal.

We all laughed a lot

and I found myself lingering over their bedtime story

and kind of wishing they didn't have to go to bed already.

I felt like a super mum today.

Albeit one who didn't brush her hair or put any make up on.

But we were all so happy, all day.

We loved our day of simple pleasures,

of turning off the television and singing songs instead,

of popping out to feed the ducks instead of walking all the way to the park,

of bouncing in the cot while Mummy put away laundry,

of leaving my phone in the music dock instead of checking social media,

of measuring out the rice together for dinner,

of sharing bananas,

of dancing until we were exhausted

and laughing so hard we fell over.

It was a good day

and one that made me think that I'll switch off more often.

I don't want my children to think that home is where the television is,

or that life is lived in a mobile phone.

And one day of switching off all the technology

really made me realise how many interactions we miss out on,

how many possibilities to talk and learn pass by
because the children are staring vacantly at the television,

or because I'm just answering a quick email.

Because as my children race to grow up,

I know I won't look back in the future

and wish we'd spent more time watching children's tv…
… not when I'd rather be looking at these beautiful faces.