This time of year does me in, I know this is a common time of year for people to get a little down. It’s the winter. The mid-winter blues. For me, it’s not that I’m down or depressed it’s more like consistently frazzled. With the winter comes shorter outside play time, less recess breaks. Call me spoiled and a whiny baby but I live in Texas, and I’m a weenie when it comes to cold weather.
I’m sure I could send the kids out in it anyway, even if only for ten minutes but honestly, I resist that because it seems like it’s more trouble than it’s worth. It’s easier just to stay inside. I don’t want to go through the trouble and time it takes to find all the gloves and hats and matching shoes, make sure everyone has socks on and appropriate outside playwear, to only have them come back inside ten minutes later because they are too cold, tracking in mud and dirt and stripping off their dirty clothes in the laundry for me to wash.
As if Mt. Laundrymore wasn’t big enough already.
And yeah, I know that if more laundry was washed and everything was put away and the shoes were where they were supposed to be then it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I know that. I do. But it’s not. It’s rarely ever that way around here. And that stinks. I keep saying that we should stay inside and get caught up on our stuff instead, and that if we could get that done we could have playtime after. But the best laid plans..
Not to mention that there’s school that needs to be done.
And there’s a four year old who doesn’t understand why we can’t watch tv all day, or that the girls need to be left alone to finish their work, and who (without adequate running outside time) ends up running around inside and wreaking havoc on the house. It’s really, truly, more of a need for him than it is for the girls. He gets “cabin fever” so much faster than they do. Like on a daily basis.
But then, those days when I just give up and throw my hands up in the air and send them outside anyway..they go off and they play and I have peace and quiet. And they run off some energy. And even if for ten minutes, it’s worth it.
So why do I fight it??
{Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/see-through-the-eye-of-g/ / CC BY 2.0}
