Lazy Days with Little Man {The Ordinary Moments}
Little Man and I spend quite a lot of time together. Three days a week it is often just him and I whilst LP is at school and I love this time of it being just us. I have written before about this time we have together but the way I think about these days of ours has changed a lot over the last few months.
When LP started school I tried to pack as much as I could into our days, so that Little Man and I would be busy, seeing friends and having fun, making plans pretty much every single day. We had all that fun, and we saw all those friends and it was great.
But then, at some point, due to sickness, or tiredness or something we had a week of basically staying at home. We’d do those jobs that we had to do – we’d go to the post office, the supermarket and then we’d go home. Little Man and I would play games, we’d watch TV or a movie and I’d potter about getting things done. Then at the end of the week I realised we hadn’t really done anything, and I felt like we’d wasted a week.
But then we got busy again, and for a month or so there was no down time and no sofa snuggles whilst watching a movie. The housework got left to the bottom of the to do list and I felt like I had so much to do but no time to do it as we were out all the time. Then I had another few days of down time to recoup and settle back to normal.
So our first school term was this spiral of being manically busy and then having a week of downtime – followed by being really busy again. I realised over Christmas that the time we have together as a family we do so much – we go on big adventures, away for the weekend, on mini breaks and on days out. We cram in as much as we possible can – more than most families with a typical working week fit into their typical weekends. So because we cram this amount in to our limited family time I now realise that I don’t have to work so hard to keep the entertainment there and the extra level of fun every week in between too.
You see, Little Man loves relaxing at home. He loves playing with his toys, learning to build something new or colouring in. He loves time at home without his sister there – so he has the freedom to play with what he likes and have all the attention. Little Man is happy at home. That’s what matters isn’t it?
So if Little Man is happy, I’m happy. This year we have been seeing friends, we’ve been having days out and we’ve been having so much fun but on those days or weeks where we have been at home I haven’t felt like I’ve wasted the week. I’ve felt like it’s been a week where I’ve spent time with Little Man – and he’s had fun, and I’ve loved that time with him. Before I know it he’ll be going off to preschool so I’ll enjoy these days – at home or out and about – for as long as I can.
A lovely post about your little man. I agree with you, when I had Alice I felt like she had to be constantly busy and out of the house doing lots of wonderful things. But, now with Holly on the days that Alice is at preschool we pop to the shops and then we have time at home, just the two of us and she loves it. Then on the 2 days Alice isn’t at preschool, we go out and have fun, but also sometimes the 3 of us will have time at home and Alice likes a day at home too. I think sometimes they just want to play with their toys. x
This is such a good point. I always feel terrible when we stay at home and don’t do anything but actually the girls enjoy it really so maybe I should do it more too.x
Such a lovely post, I used to feel that we had wasted a day if we had hung around at home but as O gets closer to school I’ve started to realise how precious those lazy mornings are as we won’t be able to have too many of them soon. xx
What a beautiful post Donna, and I really cannot get over how grown up your little guy is looking. Beatufiul capture of him too. x