It’s the age-old question: If you were stuck on a deserted island with any 4 people, dead or alive, who would you choose? Brad Pitt? Albert Einstein? Anna Pavlova? Abraham Lincoln? Babe Ruth? Mother Theresa?
For me, the answer is extremely easy: I’d choose hubby and our 3 children. And I really, truly mean it. Sure, I have my days when I dream of running away to a deserted island by myself but really, I would want my family there with me.
I mean, how cool would it be to be able to do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted without the social constraints and expectations of society? Wouldn’t it be awesome to have unlimited time to spend together without having to fit within the schedule framework of school, work, store opening hours, etc. What it would give you is total freedom.
Freedom to be together uninterrupted, to experience and learn about your world together, to teach your children what you want them to know, not what some bureaucrat says they should know. They would get to learn by seeing, exploring, doing rather than sitting in a desk or staring at a workbook.
They would be forced to create their own entertainment, to play with what they had and develop their own games. I’m sure there would still be plenty of “I’m bored” moments as that’s just a part of growing up and they’d be fighting over the biggest coconut instead of mommy’s iPad but they’d be learning to share, work together and get along.
You could teach them to be the type of person you want them to be and what matters most to you. But without the social constraints of right and wrong, what would be most important? Would it matter if they swore? Probably not (and being on a deserted island with hubby would give them plenty of opportunity to learn curse words!). Would it matter if they wanted to run around wild and be loud? Absolutely not. So what would matter? I would still expect them to be compassionate, respectful, loving and caring.
For me, this isn’t just some silly question with a hypothetical answer. Sometimes this world just gets too overwhelming for me and the expectations are so extreme that it’s hard to keep my head in the game. Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel and recede with my kids to a far away corner where we can just live and love each other uninterrupted and unbothered by the outside world.
I think as parents it’s so easy to get caught up in what other people expect of our children that we lose sight (or run out of time and energy) of what is really important to us and our families. What really matters to me may not matter to you or to the guy sitting at the table next to us at a restaurant or to the school principal. We each have our own set of ideals and I just wish I had the deserted island to raise my children the way I want to 100% of the time.
(I’ve also always thought it would be really awesome to be able to live a life where you slept when you were tired and ate when you were hungry instead of living on the 24-hour, every second scheduled clock!)
I hear ya, in this busy world how often do we even have any uninterrupted time with our loved ones!?!? It’s so important to keep a good perspective of what is important to us and our families!
Agreed, Aubrey! I try not to over extend our family, I limit activities my kids are signed up for and try to keep my work schedule simple but inevitably it gets too busy too fast and I start feeling like a slave to the schedule.
I know exactly what you mean. My hubby dreams of own acres and acres of land where we can just be together a family – growing out own crops, maybe having some chickens, and horses. Relying on the land. I don’t know how possible it will be now with two young kids but he wants to be able to do whatever he wants with his property.
Sometimes the hustle and bustle of life makes it difficult to appreciate our loved ones the way we should. Undivided attention as half the times I feel we’re sucked up in the social media world. Everything integrated. What would happen of the Internet went away for a day? a week?
I wonder that about the internet too, Felicita. It’s such a time suck and sometimes I just want to shut it all down. But then what would happen to Beyond Mommying?!?
I love this post and can totally relate. I like to say life is getting in the way of living my life. And with my husband and I working opposite schedules, it’s really hard to spend quality family time together but we try our best.
http://www.newsyparents.com
It totally feels like “life” gets in the way of living the way you want!
Love your post! I think a lot of moms would agree with this. We get so caught up in school, extra curricular activities, birthday parties, holidays, etc..If we don’t have a birthday party or anything on a Saturday. We usually stay in our pj’s until lunch time or Until I start yelling for everyone to go outside!:)
Luckily(?) we don’t get invited to many birthday parties but the little ones and I stay in our pajamas many days until school pick up time at 2 pm!
I absolutely agree with everything you said. This fast paced world gets to all us and that’s why it’s so important to step back sometimes breathe and enjoy! :) Thanks for sharing a message we all can relate too!
http://theimaginationlaboratory.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Mrs. Mae!