day 299: every day is important in parenting

“There’s no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day.” Alexander Woollcott



I have been on Face Book for a little over a year now, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Sharing pictures with my grown kids; connecting with old friends; getting messages out quickly to students and their families; “talking” to friends that I often do not get to; and so much more. It has been an awesome experience. Of course, just like anything else, it has be controlled and have accountability—and if it were consuming my life or taking too much time, etc., I would not have it—just like we have not had television programming (i.e. dish, antennae, etc.) for almost all of our married life. (Life with our children is way too short to let “things” get in the way of what we need to be doing to raise them.)

One thing that always strikes me as funny about FB statuses is the “nothing to do today” syndrome. It is especially apparent in children and teens, but adults often have this same mindset. It is the mindset that if nothing exciting is going on today, it’s a bum day. Ultimately, I think we need to address this with our children. If our children go through their growing up years living for experiences and fun—and dreading days that do not contain activity and excitement, they will indeed be disappointed adults.

For today, however, we should consider this in our adult/parent lives—and the root of this view. Obviously, I love exciting days. I love to look forward to being with my grown kids, going on vacation, ballroom dancing on Saturday, spending an evening with friends, and even my favorite movie coming to the theatre. But we have to be careful as parents that we do not get into the rut of living for the exciting, the unusual, or “activity.”

The quote at the beginning of this post sums it up. Every day is important. Each day is another opportunity to invest in our kids; to do the mundane excellently; to live life with them; to model Christian living; to point them to God; to teach them the character of Christ; to help them learn to live relationally with each other and those they encounter in work, school, church, and play.

When we wake up with nothing exciting on the schedule, rather than looking at it as being a “bum” day, we should welcome a day without “extras”—as more time, more opportunity, more relationship, more love, and more training. An unfilled day (as far as “unusual” or “extras”—most days are pretty full already!) is really a wide open day. It is a day to pay special attention to our children, our home, our spouse, and others that God has put in our lives. Truly, there is no such thing as an unimportant day when it comes to parenting.