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The Family Play Day

We talk a lot about being intentional, and we work at it too, but when was the last time your family let loose and simply played together? Here's why sometimes, the very best thing we can do is ditch all our plans.The Family Play Day

I’m a workaholic.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

Most of the things I do I like to do well. Exceptionally well. Like I won’t quit until it’s done.

While this means I’m great at tackling projects, finding solutions, and making plans, it also means I have to be intentional about rest and play.

Many weekends here lately have been full for my family. Either I’m traveling out of town for work, one or two children have weekend sports games, or there is a birthday party to attend or some function to go to.

But this weekend. There was nothing.

Absolutely nothing going on.

I have to admit to you that my first inclination was to think about how much work I could get caught up on.

But after being a bit giddy and talking to my husband about all of the stuff we could accomplish this weekend and check off of our lists. (Or truth be told how much he could do that would check off things on my list)…

We decided to do nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

On purpose.

We took our kids on a surprise ride to the local yogurt shop and had yogurt with all the fixings for breakfast.

We went to the park and played tetherball even though the ground was muddy and I wanted to tell them not to get their shoes dirty.

We walked from the park to a community fair day that we didn’t even know was happening today.  But we went anyway just because we could.

And then we drove home so that everyone could take a nap.

Because too much sleep has never hurt anybody.

And now… as I sit here taking a moment to write this unplanned post I realize:

The sink isn’t shiny…

The clothes are still in the dirty clothes basket..

The bed is unmade…

My hair needs some TLC…

My writing goals aren’t met yet…

But today I played.

And none of the boxes I could have checked off today would replace the memories I made together with my husband and with our kids.

Trust me.  I know there are so many things on your to do list.  I also know that even though you work furiously to get things done, you know in your heart the list will never end.

You are right.

It won’t.

So it’s up to us as parents to stop the clock some days simply because we should and because if we don’t press pause intentionally it will rarely happen on accident.

Some days we should stop to play.

To be adventurous.

To set off without a real plan and to see where the day leads as we move through it.

Some days we should stop to be together with our spouses and our children and play.

We should make time for a family play day.

And then know that when we do, we are doing the important work of making memories, forming family bonds, and without some grand master plan in place, we are creating our family story.

Blessings,

Chrystal Hurst, ChrystalEvansHurst.com

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