Saturday I took the girls shopping. It is not my idea of fun, but Jackie wanted a volleyball and ivy a watch. And it dawned on me that this is it, my opportunity to spend quality time with my girls in a new way, in their preteen stage. Parenting changes as fast as the kids grow. And they grow up fast.
When Conrad joins us, and he really dislikes malls, we feel the energy drained out of us before we even park the car. The traffic is bad on weekends towards the mall, and it is definitely crowded. So I decided to split things up. I said I’m taking the girls swimming and then shopping. We spent 3+ hours and we only had a little snack from home, but we had a ton of fun. We went into all the stores, Jackie tried on hoodies and then we went back to the first store and got the one that fit best. After lunch we drove home and we were still in good spirits. I told them I like being their mom. They were happy with their purchase.
Then next day we prepared for a hike to a new place. Rimetea. We made the plan in the evening, and in the morning I packed sandwiches and other treats. It was a whole day affair. The climb was tedious, and we were beyond tired at the end of the day, but we saw flowers and sweeping views of this green country of ours. When we finished the snacks and we still had a mile to go, to circle back to the car, we made plans to have papanasi, a delicious local dessert. Said and done. We stopped at tamas bistro and had dinner and dessert. And we got home just in time to take a refreshing shower and go to bed.
We finally know full well what we like and what we don’t like and we plan accordingly. We try new things often but if you already know you don’t like something, it’s best to make arrangements.
I am tired of grumpy kids or grumpy husband, or even grumpy self. We push our boundaries to the point of disconfort, but at times we could just divide and conquer, splitting activities between family members.