{"id":1094,"date":"2013-07-11T14:26:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T18:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2013-12-15T21:24:30","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T02:24:30","slug":"a-new-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/11\/a-new-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a good blogging day.\u00a0 Wisdom was oozing from me and I wrote almost three entire posts during the 2nd<\/sup> half of the girls\u2019 nap.\u00a0 I was finishing up the 3rd<\/sup> when Honeybun\u00a0\u00a0woke up and proud of all I had accomplished.\u00a0 As I finished she gently stroke my arm and whispered \u201cmommy.\u201d\u00a0 Doodle and Sugarplum were still sleeping and I whispered back \u201cyes, honey?\u201d\u00a0 What she said next caught me by surprise.\u00a0 I expected her to ask for a snack as she usually does but instead she whispered \u201ctomorrow can you guys not be on the computer at all?\u201d<\/p>\n

I explained to here that I was doing my work and I was almost done.\u00a0 My time on the computer is generally spent working on Beyond Mommying, checking important emails, keeping in touch with far away friends and doing other essential tasks while the girls are playing nicely by themselves. \u00a0It’s not like I just putz around Facebook or browse the web. \u00a0I don\u2019t feel like I spend that much time on the computer or that my being on the computer is taking away from them which is why her request caught me off guard.<\/p>\n

My children are fed, clean and well rested.\u00a0 I make sure they have time to exercise, learn, create and play.\u00a0 I feel like I\u2019m doing a darn good job at being a mommy.\u00a0 But while I was up all night listening to Doodle thrash and grunt in his bed (and I\u2019m not exaggerating when I say ALL night) I began to get sad.\u00a0 What does it really matter if my children are fed, clean and well rested or that they have time to exercise, learn, create and play if they don\u2019t feel loved and valued?\u00a0 Even now writing this and thinking about my children feeling neglected when I thought I was giving them everything I had makes my eyes well up with tears.<\/p>\n

So I made a life changing choice: no internet when the girls are awake.\u00a0 If I can\u2019t get everything done that needs to be done when they are napping or at night when they are in bed then it\u2019s probably not that important. \u00a0This includes no iPad while nursing Doodle, no checking my e-mail while they finish breakfast and no writing while they color or craft at the table. \u00a0I realize there will be times I\u2019ll need to check something like directions or pay a bill I forgot about or send an important email (since getting on the phone is nearly impossible!) but I vow to do those things quickly and get back to my kids as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

So what does this decision really mean?\u00a0 It means I\u2019ll get more time to exercise, learn, create and play with them. I\u2019ll get to hold them, hug them, kiss them and love them more.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get to make more memories with them and hopefully it will all make our days easier with less fighting, arguing and frustration.<\/p>\n

It also means I may not get as much writing done and that my posts will have to start going up in the afternoon or evening but I also hope it means I\u2019ll have more positive and meaningful experiences to write about.\u00a0 I don\u2019t expect it will be easy all the time but it\u2019s a goal I intend to meet because nothing is more important than my children\u2019s happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a good blogging day.\u00a0 Wisdom was oozing from me and I wrote almost three entire posts during the 2nd half of the girls\u2019 nap.\u00a0 I was finishing up the 3rd when Honeybun\u00a0\u00a0woke up and proud of all I had accomplished.\u00a0 As I finished she gently stroke my arm and whispered \u201cmommy.\u201d\u00a0 Doodle and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","category-family-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1102,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions\/1102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}