Family dynamics, routines, schedules, etc. are complicated. Add in-laws, more children, divorce, second marriages, and merging families, and it becomes more like a three-ring circus trying to accommodate everyone’s schedules, routines, and unique characteristics.
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Gone are the days of children eagerly hopping on their bikes first thing in the morning and filling their days with endless outdoor adventures, exploring the neighborhood, local woods, or stream, cultivating creativity in imaginary play, or learning valuable lifelong lessons in communication, conflict, and cooperation in an impromptu ballgame with siblings and the neighborhood kids. Screens have quickly replaced bicycles as the most coveted form of technology in children’s lives. Screens that offer endless streaming options so children become an audience of one another and watch as others share their hands-on adventures and explorations.
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Do you have a place, a destination, or a trip you’ve always wanted to take either with your family or spouse? Hocking Hills was my place. I’d always wanted to go. We talked about it multiple times over the course of 19 years of marriage but something always came up, often other financial obligations that took precedence over a trip to Hocking Hills. An excuse always presented itself, such is life. We tend to put off the things that will really matter in the long run, like planning family vacations and getaways with your spouse to reconnect, spend quality time together and make the memories that strengthen the marital bond. Ultimately putting off what is vital for the family and marriage for some other short-term gain or for something we assume should take priority over the need to take a break from all the work and really remember why we do all the work we do, who we do it for, what we do it for, we’re so American!
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Mom on the go in Holy Toledo 