Unplug and Invest Time

The other night two girlfriends and I were talking about the “scary” parts of being a parent. I’m the only one with a child but they both have really good insight. I had mentioned that I think an important part of being a parent is making sure that your voice is louder than all the voices of the world. But how can we do that when the world seems so much more appealing than us? I think in order to even have a voice in our children’s lives, we have to unplug and get down to their level. In a world full of baby Einstein, Disney and Sponge Bob, it’s easy to put on a show and get a moment’s rest.   As Dennon gets older it turns into, Television, Movies, Magazines, Friends at school.This has been a battle I refuse to lose with my own parenting skills and Dennon.  So, I start investing my voice in him now, I have to unplug and actually get down to his level, crawl around, sing patty cake a million times, and listen to the banging of the pots and pans.  I can't expect him to listen to me or come to me for advice if even now at his young 14 months, I don’t talk with him, create a bond with him, show him that I have time for him, his thoughts and his ideas.

Numerous times in my relationships with close friends I’ve had them tell me “You’re opinion means a lot to me and I value what you have to say” or “I could hear this little Rachel voice in my head”. Those are huge compliments and they warm my heart, but how did I get to that level of friendship with them, that they respected what I had to say? Time. You have to invest time into people, build relationships, listen to their hearts. People know when you are too busy for them, they know when you’d rather be doing something else. I love being the one a friend calls when they need advice or just someone to listen to them vent. I believe we have to apply the same principles to our relationships with our kids. In order to have a voice louder than the world’s or even a voice at all, we have to build a strong, trusting relationship with them. They have to really know and feel deep in their hearts that we ALWAYS have time to hear them or be with them.

I want our home to be fueled with family time, laughter and the day’s stories. Not just TV, video games and the computer. Shouldn’t we be teaching our kids how to communicate and unplug too? This world has so many distractions, some wonderful and some not so wonderful, but if we get so caught up in them we won’t be able to teach our kids how to focus on the important things about life and building relationships.

With Dennon, I feel I have so much more to learn but I keep trudging along, I stop and be silly with him, I include him in dinner, in cleaning and in the parts of my life that have to get done daily. We have silly songs, silly dances and lots of laughter, sure in the back of my mind sometimes I’m like “I just want to watch that new episode of Glee, I have to work on "Converse" stuff, I need to steam clean the rug, I should clean out the junk drawer.” But all those things will come; right now he’s dragging blocks one by one and putting them on my lap, time to focus on him. We may not be able to sit down and have deep conversations, but this is how I begin to show him that he comes first and is important to me.

You know the saying, "actions speak louder than words". So what actions in your life are you just using words for? How can you learn to unplug today so it will help you with your relationship(s) tomorrow? Enrich someone else’s life by stopping what your doing and putting a little pretty into them!