Be so good at your job that your kids think you’re playing ~ Written by Jamie C. Martin
Once when my children were younger, I sat at the table drizzling maple syrup on my pancakes (our Sunday morning tradition), when I overheard this from one child to another:
“Daddy goes out to work every day, but all Mommy does is play and rest.”
Excuse me, what?!
This statement, spoken with the true innocence of childhood, hurt my feelings at first–and annoyed me in retrospect. Steve and I gave the kids a brief overview of all that I did around the house, and the kids just looked on with wide eyes:
You mean, when Mommy makes our meals each day, that’s work?
Or when she settles multiple arguments between brothers and sister, giving countless reminders to use kind words or no words?
When we see her with laptop open, typing away?
When she reads stories at breakfast and lunch?
When she helps with our showers and brushes teeth at night?
I remember reading in one of Sally Clarkson’s books that children who grow up with a stable home life tend to, especially when young, take that stability for granted. And as I pondered all this in the shower it hit me:
I had done my job so well that my kids thought my life was play.
The atmosphere I’d worked so hard to create, in which I could see so many imperfections, translated into their little minds as play, peace, rest. Absolutely incredible!
I organized our days according to our core priorities, and what I’d longed to convey is that even though we’re called to work hard, we can love our life, our mission, our daily activities.
Mission accomplished.
Let’s aim to be so good at our job that our kids think we’re playing.
They won’t really understand how hard we’ve worked until they become parents themselves (I know I didn’t), so why not aim to love and enjoy our days, even in the midst of their struggles and imperfections?
“Mother knows how to BE at home – and really, to be in herself. It’s actually very beautiful what she does…I think part of me just longs for the way Mother experiences home.” ~ Sue Monk Kidd
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