TIME, OR LACK THEREOF

Believe me when I say, I have lots of notes and pics like this.  They’re all kinda funny, and at the same time, kinda sad.  When you see something like this – you feel like you were just ruining your poor kids life.  So??  Were we torturing our kids by taking them to church?  Or saving their souls from eternal damnation?   Who the heck knows??  But ultimately, the battle of time has won out… and we don’t really go to church.  Frankly, the effort, the battling, and the fact that its the only time we have(period!) to run errands… and church, has sadly fallen by the wayside.  Now, of course,  that time is taken up by even more soccer games.  We spend a lot of time driving to soccer games on  Sundays – no longer talking about how we never make it to church, but how we never make it to run errands…  Time. Time. Time.  … Sigh.

My kids still write me horrifically sad notes about the horrible treatment in our household.  You’ll find our torture machines everywhere – like having to practice the piano, or setting the table, or having to pick up their dirty socks off the living room floor!  I’m pretty sure life for my kids is pretty darn good.  But you wouldn’t know it by all the notes I get.  Unfortunately, as my wife pointed out, I feel guilty.  Why?  I don’t know.  Like when my oldest, wrote the saddest, most heart-wrenching note about not having time to play because we were making him pick up his room.  I felt bad!  The poor kids was missing his whole Sunday afternoon.  Yet… in the time it took him to write the note, his room would have been clean!!  Then, I thought about it and started to get angry.  Especially since this room cleaning escapade lasted 5 hours!!!!  5?!!?  Yes.  5 HOURS of complaining, maybe 5 MINUTES of cleaning… and oddly, it still wasn’t clean.  As I recall, his room NEVER got clean that Sunday.  Kinda like church… we never made it.