So yesterday I wrote about the consequences of giving kids free time at school.
Those thoughts definitely 100% do not apply to kids at home.
Kids need free time.
Kids need free time to play, to be bored, to imagine, to create, to be with friends.
Also, adults need free time to play, to be bored, to imagine, to create, to be with friends.
We all need down time. Not crash-on-the-couch-in-exhaustion time.
If you’re having time finding it, schedule it. Make it a regularly-scheduled non-negotiable appointment.
It’s rare around here to have a day when The Kid doesn’t have some unscheduled time. Even with his crazy track schedule, he had some time after school to play or read or do whatever he decided to do that day.
(He doesn’t have homework, and he is, sadly, at an early-start school, so he had an hour after school. Those are variables I don’t have control over that happened to work in our favor. I’ll write more about homework soon.)
I have some unscheduled time at least three days every week, often more. (That’s not writing time, or time when The Kid is here but not directly supervised, which is often spent in tasks around the house.) The Climbing Daddy gets some unscheduled time regularly; he’s getting better at not protesting that there are other things to do.
So. Make time for yourself to play. Make time for your kids to play. (That includes the big kids!) It’s worth it.
