I am 30 today.
With age, I am starting to look at my life in a different angle.
When I look back, I see that I have always been running a race aka what others call it living a life.
But the last few months have been different. I am trying to slow down and thereby being mindful.
I celebrate each day like it is a gift.
I take things slow. I do not rush myself nor my children.
I have adjusted myself like water, like how water flows through its cracks.
I still have a long way to go.
I still lose my cool easily and get lost in the madness.
But I know it is way better than in the past.
In the coming posts I will share how I learnt to live a slow life, which I am still figuring it out.
But today I wanted to talk how slow parenting has helped me as a mother.
1.I get more sleep. We go to bed early with a quick Netflix show and I doze off to sleep after that.
2.I get to spend more time with my kids. Mostly I leave my phone at home during our park times. I watch my kids play in the sand, climb the slide and I push them in the swings while I chit chat with them (Confession: with my phone, I am not able to do it. I see myself constantly checking my phone).
3.I get to read more. I used to read during my commute to office and during my bedtime. My reading habit went for a toss once I became a parent.Now I see myself picking up my books in the evenings while my children play. I still am nowhere close to finishing a book in a few days. But I am slowing getting in the groove.
4.We have quality evening times. Weekends were usually the craziest for us. We used to go out in the evenings and come back home late and tired. Now we try not to have too many things to do in a weekend. We focus on just one or two tasks and step out in the mornings. This way we are back home by 6 in the evening. We get to play with the kids or just spend our time together making dinner and watch a movie after the kids sleep.
5.Sibling bond grows stronger. Some mornings we just sit in the balcony together as a family and just watch the world moving around us fast, but we see it in slow motion. I can see magic woven between my kids when they are there in the balcony by just watching outside.
6.We seem to watch we eat. Earlier I used to just order from bigbasket and eat whatever substandard veggies they delivered. That is the downside of internet shopping. We now visit local markets, touch, smell the veggies and pick them up. And I shop without distraction, it helps me plan better of what my family eats the whole week.
7.. I keep reminding myself that this will be the sweetest phase of my life when my kids are small and they want to be close to me. I dread the tween and teen days ( that’s a story for another day 😊), but sooner my children will not like to be hugged, bury his face on my arms or want to be kissed in public. While it lasts I am going to embrace it better.
8.Keeping things simple. I try to simplify things in my life, right from our meals to our agendas. That way I am not overwhelmed with how the day progresses.
With all this happening, I find myself at my wits end very often. I run an online business which demands me to be be online and be there for my customers when they reach out to me. But I am torn apart when my kids and my customers need me at the same time.
I still find myself working on my laptop or talking over the phone while my son needs my attention. I see him walk away with a sad face when I do not respond well. It breaks my heart to see him that way.
I am trying to learn the art of balancing work and family and sometimes look at awe on moms who do that easily.
But my mantra for now goes ’Slow Down, Slow Down Everything’.
kiddiemom.wordpress.com 