Parents Press the Pause Button!

Recently I was lucky enough to press the pause button for just a moment in my hectic life to step back and just watch my son. While watching my son, I realized that I am in a pretty good spot right now with him; even though he doesn’t always listen to my advice and sometimes thinks I am nagging him when I ask him to do something.

You see, he loves basketball, but since I’m still taller than him I can still out rebound him and still beat him in the game that he loves. Playing basketball with him gives me an opportunity to step out of that authority role of a parent and into the sports role where my son can have some fun with me and still learn a few things through the natural role of just playing.

Eventually, other kids showed up at the park, and I stepped aside just to watch my son play with them. As I was appreciating this moment as a parent, I thought how wonderful it would be to have moments like this more often. Then my brain went to work and said, “Well, why can’t we?” Hmm…

What if the next time we were doing something with our kids, we paused and truly appreciated being their parent and truly appreciated them being kids? And on the opposite end of the spectrum, what if the next time one of our children acted up we paused, took a breath, and made sure just to breathe some joy into our parenting? Let’s press the pause button more often just to enjoy our kids right now. We have no way of knowing what tomorrow brings.

Now, as my Granddaddy always said, “Go learn, lead, and lay the way to a better world for all of us.” Let’s remember to press the pause button every once in a while, and hopefully, we will all have plenty of more sunny days filled with our children just playfully being children. And once again parents, thanks in advance for all that you do, and all that you will do…

Daniel Blanchard is a New Britain Schoolteacher who is a bestselling and award-winning author, speaker, and educator. He has appeared in over 100 television and radio shows, as well as some of the world's top podcasts. Learn more about Dan at: www.GranddaddysSecrets.com