Endless energy
As a mother of five boys, I must give in and admit one truth that is inevitable -- boys never have enough.
All children love to play, play with their friends, go to parties etc., but boys, or at least my five, never have enough of anything.
You can plan an enitre day of activities, everything they love to do. They will do them all, and when you are limping home at the end, their question always is, "What are we doing when we get home?"
I have to say that for my age and amount of children, I do possess an incredible amount of energy. I am daring, I am always looking to do fun things, athletic things, rock wall climbing, trips to the beach – the beach downtown – invovling endless walking, carrying of things, activities that last all day. I would never dream of leaving the beach or ending an activity until the boys have had enough.
With all of that, it is still not enough. These boys will still want to play when they get back. Imagine being at the beach all day in sand, walking along the lakefront, walking over the bridge carrying coolers and sand toys in 90 degrees, and then an hour later when you get home, getting on your bike and going to your friend's house to squeeze out more time. How can you not be tired yet?
Forget bouncing off of the walls, these boys shouldn't even be able to keep their eyes open by the time I am done with them. There just is no down time right now with my boys, and while I love doing things and I love planning, I do wish there could be one day where we just hang around the house and watch movies together.
While I do realize that as the weather changes, so will our schedules, I still get the feeling that I am forcing something on them. I just wish they had the capacity to understand how much fun sitting back every once and a while and just enjoying each other's company is. Some of my fondest memories as a kid involve sitting around my mom and dad's reading the Sunday paper and watching movies together, recounting the events of the week. I am trying to let the boys be boys, and make memories doing things I know they love, while still hoping that they will start to slow it down a little, and be thankful for the work that went into planning all of these activities.
I know boys can never get enough of sports they love, hanging out with friends, doing "boy" things, but being the only girl, I hope that they grow to understand that there is a time for all of that, and that there is a time to slow it down, maybe skip that extra trip to your friend's house, and hang with your very cool mom who let's you do very cool stuff, and pushes herself to make good times for you. This is a shout out to those moms who spend months during baseball season going to games, etc. Thank your mom by appreciating the little things in life that can also be fun.
Get creative, do something together, and realize that even boys can take a deep breath, and give the walls you are used to bouncing off a rest!
Again, I am speaking from my personal experience, so please don't feel like I am catergorizing every boy. But those that have a similar experience, please feel free to comment, I love to read your responses. All of us parents are in this thing together in some way. Again, I love my boys with all of my heart, but even this tough one needs to take a rest every once and a while, and I would love my cuties to join me!
