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What Matters

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The Long Lazy Saturday

When the kids are small, I agree to going big on the Hallmark holidays. Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc. Why not? They’re kids, and they’re learning about celebrations, plus, those holidays seem to be fading away.

For Valentine’s Day, we indeed gave the kids a lot. A dozen balloons in the morning, some candy and chocolates after school, and an evening out at place called Punch Bowl Social. It’s like your uncle’s backyard, a retro bowling alley, a diner, and a bar are all smashed together. We had a nice dinner, played some arcade games, bowled ten frames, had a shake and some cheesecake, and then played Sorry! The kids loved it, and it kind of felt like a real date night for Mommy and me. The final bill—I won’t say. What I will say is that we won’t be going there every weekend.

Later that evening at home, we gave the boys their Valentine cards and some small toys. After opening everything, my eldest replied, “Is that everything?”

My wife and I shot each other a look. Is that everything???

The next morning we knew we had to reset their expectations. We made breakfast at home and said no to TV. When they begged to go to the waterfront park, we said no. Today will be a Long Lazy Saturday, we declared. No TV, no going out to places, no food out.

Did they complain? Yes, but only briefly. After a while, they made their ownwaterfront park outside with the sprinkler. Lunch was homemade sandwiches and fruit. We did some homework and built Legos. Day turned to dusk, and dusk to dark and dinner came with just a bit of TV to watch right after.

At bedtime we talked about what matters: having big fun out of the house once in a while, and also appreciating what we have right in our home. That we don’t need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars to entertain ourselves. Everything we need is right here. And that’s what matters.

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Photo by Park Troopers on Unsplash

The post What Matters appeared first on The Good Men Project.


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