The Thanksgiving holiday is arriving quickly and I haven’t talked to very many parents out there who are ready for it. With our uber busy lives, sometimes it’s hard to remember to take minute to slow down and enjoy those precious moments with your kids.
Like many parents, there are days that speed past and once at the end, wonder how I missed a teachable moment or a chance to give a little extra encouragement or hug. We’ve all seen the research where kids have spoken up to say that they wish they had more time with thier parents. This is particularly true of familes who share custody of children.
I was thinking about this as we were all rushing out the door for another appointment, and wished there were more hours in the day. Interestingly, after doing some research, I found there is an entire movement dedicated to living “slowly.” The video below is about how one father, a journalist by the name of Carl Honore, was as busy and frantic as they come.
So much so that he felt he was living “stuck in fast forward” and was trying to figure out a way to hurry through the nightly bedtime story with his son. He even describes how he found a book called something like the one-minute bedtime story, and momentarily thought it was the answer to his problems…and then he realized what he was doing.
Like Honore, many of us are in the same conundrum…deadlines, demands, and other expectations make it terribly difficult to slow down enough to appreciate the small, precious people in our lives. During the Thanksgiving holiday next week, while the kids are out of school and there is more time to reconnect, why not take advantage of it and try to spend a little extra quality time with your little ones?
Take them for a walk, a mommy/daughter lunch date, or a daddy/son soccer game or if you are like Honore, devote some extra time and attention to bedtime. Let them play in a warm bubble bath, give them a backrub, and then snuggle up for some quiet bonding moments to read together. There are some really incredible things you can learn about your kids…last night, my 4th grade daughter confessed that there was a boy in her class who “loved” her and she didn’t know what to do about it. If I had brushed her off, I may have never learned about this young crush, or have gotten to see the blush on her cheeks and hear her shy giggle.
Since it is the Thanksgiving holiday, sharing some books on gratitude can make for a perfect way to end the day. I know one thing for sure, even with a crazy-busy life, I am grateful for those few moments to connect with my kids over a stack of books. Not only that, they have a great opportunity to learn from you how to give and recieve gratitute. We may regret not having enough time or being too busy, but I can’t imagine anyone regretting the time spent invested in the life of a child, especially time spent reading with them. Check out some of the great titles below if you need some holiday reading suggestions.
Thansgiving Books For Kids
