What to do?
It’s the end of my day. I’m sitting in bed with the laptop, musing over the day. This is when I unwind. This is when I try to figure out what went well today and what needs improvement.
What went well today? We did school. We got some chores done. We went to violin lessons tonight. I made a good supper.
What needs improvement? I’ve said it many times to Michael, but I’ll say it again here: I can’t do it all. Profound, eh? But it’s true. If I work hard on laundry and housework, we don’t get school done. On days where I focus on school, I don’t get any housework done. And if we go somewhere else for the day, nothing gets done at home. So even though I am pleased with what we did get done today, I can’t help but notice what did NOT get done. Laundry didn’t move. Bed didn’t get made. Floors didn’t get cleaned.
So now I’m sitting here analyzing my day and trying to figure out how to do better about getting more things done. I almost feel like I’m staring at a chess board and thinking. “If I move here, they will move over there. But if I leave this here, that piece will be stuck. I sacrifice this one for that, or that one for this.”
Tonight I have something else on my mind too. Maybe you can help me think through this. Here’s the situation: We have an opportunity to take violin lessons, but Isaac doesn’t want to participate. I plan to learn. Laura, Luke and Amelia all want to learn, but Isaac isn’t interested. He went to the lesson tonight and gave it a fair shot. But he still isn’t interested. What should we do? Should we require him to take lessons anyway? Or should we just let him make that decision for himself? If we insist he take lessons, it would cost us money for the lessons and money for instrument rental. But if we don’t push him into it, he may miss out on learning along with us and being a part of our group. I don’t know what to do. I want him to learn along with us for his sake as well as ours. We could have a lot of fun playing together. But I don’t want to drag Isaac along unwillingly.
Maybe a good night’s sleep will sift through the dilemma and leave me with a good answer in the morning. Then again, maybe these kinds of dilemmas aren’t easily solved.
If you have any ideas, please leave a comment here. I always enjoy your feedback!
August 28th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Hi There Christie -
I’ve been reading ever since you asked me permission to post my intro. Here’s what we do in these situations … If we decide that we are going to do something as a family, then we require all our kids to participate, even the 14 and 12 year olds. For instance, We do skating once a month and my 12 year old doesn’t like to skate. Since this is part of our school (PE) and we go as a family, I make him go and skate a little. But I must say that we make exceptions, as I am sure everyone does. This is the great thing about parenting … You, the parents, gets to decide the exceptions. Just this last month when we went skating, my 14 year old for the first time, visited with his friends, looking at photos and exchanging summer stories, instead of skating. I talked with him about 20 mins after we got there and thought it was fine. I think we still need to treat each child as an individual at times and handle things on that individual basis. Parenting is so hard. Ask God for guidance, and he will show the way. It may take a while for you to see the answer, but he will answer. While you are waiting on that clear answer, do what you two think is best. …. Live by Faith and daily prayer. God Bless You, Cindy
August 29th, 2006 at 7:51 am
Cindy,
Thanks so much for your comments! I value your input, especially as you are a few steps ahead of me on this journey. I will take your advice to pray about it. I’m afraid I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for pointing me to my Father. Christie
August 29th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
I think Isaac might have a bright future as a carpenter, electrician, plumber, or jack-of-all-trades! If Michael Sr. isn’t planning to take up the violin, then maybe he could continue to mentor Isaac on the re-modeling project.
August 30th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Oh! So the moral of the story is I need to insist that Michael take violin with us, right?