I always scoffed at the idea of the parents’ bedroom being “sacred space, but as my kids grow, they get better at invading every facet of my life. I find that I need a retreat more and more. My solution has been to thoroughly clean my bedroom – removing all the kid paraphernalia – and lock my bedroom door whenever I haven’t invited the kids in. How have you created a private space in your life? Or have you?!
I direct readers to my marriage blog where I answer this question for my husband and me~
WordPress tells me that The Empty(ing) Nest blog was viewed about 4,700 times in 2010 with 36 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 92 posts.
“If we are forever yearning for ‘more,’ we are forever discounting what is offered.
~Julia Cameron
Keller, visipix.com
As we approach the last days of summer, panic takes hold inside me: The kids are going back to school and there must be a long list of opportunities that I’ve missed!
I have to derail these thoughts of inadequacy because I know how quickly I can crash into a pit of despair. (Despair is a distraction I’ve long relied upon.)
I also like to rely on distraction itself, as a distraction, and thus after derailing inadequacy, I launch in another direction: What last day of summer activity could I do with the kids that would unify us, elevate us and define us… as summer winners!
But satisfying a 46 year-old mother, a 10 year old, and a reluctant to do anything TEEN derails this distraction all by itself, and I give up, and give in: to the end of summer and the end of possibility and the end of a better Mom.
Instead, I pull out the stack of thank you cards that I’ve been avoiding, and engage the whole family in writing notes of appreciation to some of the people who made the our summer special–mainly relatives who hosted us on our recent trip “home.”
Next, I enlist the boys in “giving back”–To the kitchen which has provided three meals a day and countless snacks all summer long. Aidan scrubs the cabinet doors and Lloyd does the counters.
As the boys work, inadequacy takes hold of me again with thoughts of what we might be doing instead… Hiking, canoeing, miniature golfing, taking in a matinee, enjoying a leisurely lunch out…
But the truth is– our summer has been filled with that kind of fun–so maybe it’s time to STOP and surrender the doing.
Maybe it’s time to follow the advice that I give to mothers and teachers as each season ends:
Sarah from
The Empty Nest Diary 