My phrase to the children of late has been “as soon as I finish this”.   Life is hectic, and I’m sure I’m not alone in the race to get everything done in a day, home chores and work, and still make time for kids, and for wine before falling asleep!   But daily routines have long since taken over my life and I am totally governed by what time of the day it is, which dictates what I should be doing.  Spontaneity passed a while back and replaced itself with involuntary to-do lists, which seem to be getting longer, and I fear we do tend to forget what’s important in life while we battle with the commotion of being full-time working parents.

But this weekend, spur of the moment, which isn’t a common thing around here, I opted to take a day off, having just passed one of the year’s busiest periods in work, and felt I had done enough extra hours to warrant a day away from the home office to spend time with the Hubby and the little ones.   Always feeling guilty about constantly working, and Daddy being the given the role of primary fun-haver and being the first to get cuddles in the morning, I was determined to spend some quality time with the family, to rejuvenate myself after a rough month at the desk, and more importantly, to remind the kids that I am still here!

With no phones, no laptops, no emails and no gaming allowed, we headed West to Pembrokeshire, to a beautiful part of the world with its gorgeous award winning beaches, restaurants and an array of theme parks to keep us entertained.  The car was of course packed full to the brim with blankets and cuddly teddies for the 1hr40 drive, which I was advised were needed for one nights stay, but this weekend was all about the kids so with us they came.

Two days of fun prevailed at play centres, theme parks and beaches, which saw us all fully immerse ourselves in giggles, and sitting on the coast, hot chocolate in hand, watching the children play, I got reminded how lucky we are to have 2 gorgeous, healthy children, that really do appreciate all we do for them, including the constant working if it means we can have timeout like this, albeit rare, reminded to me by my youngest this weekend.    I felt for once that I was actually there, in spirit and mind and not failing them by not having enough time or energy to spend the time with them that I should.

And there lies the thought.   Does all this constant working to make our life better in the future mean that its taking something away from the present?  Should we be spending more time on the now rather than on all of the tomorrows?   Hubby and I get very little time together (post-kids life in general, I know!), and after 20 years together, we still have the same dreams and aspirations we did back in the late nighties when we first met.  There are still so many things we want to do and see, and share with our children, and the constant working for more cash to allow us to put some of those dreams into reality is always the reason for working so hard.

This weekend really did give me time out to think about all that, to recharge my batteries, to do what makes me smile again, and to be the goofy, silly, fun loving person I am on the inside, away from the laptop and meeting requests.  There was no clock this weekend, we had all the time in the world just to be us, no where to be, no to-do lists, just us four being us four.   We made time for each other, soaked up the fresh air, the outdoor space and took advantage of the beautiful scenery and every last drop of the rare Welsh sunshine.

Time is a big thing for me, or lack there of, and they say the most important time is family time and this weekend I felt that down to my bones.  Spending time laughing and joking with the kids, taking myself right down to their youthful level, I reminded myself about the important things, plus the kids loved having Mammy & Daddy all to themselves, and together which is scarce, and I loved it too, every second.

Granted, all good things must come to an end, and I’m up in the Essex office Mon – Wed this week, 200 miles away from my babies but I have to remember that I work to live, and not visa versa.  I will spend the alone time in the hotel room doing some freelance work, which means I don’t have to do it on the weekend, and will start to plan our next trip or day out where we can again, spend quality time together, have fun and make memories… the building blocks of my soul.

Rhian
x
#workkidssleep