Summer in Grand Marais really can’t be beat. You have to enjoy the summer up here while you have it because it is a month or two shorter than everywhere else in the state. Have you ever noticed how busy your summer schedule can suddenly get? Between work, summer recreation leagues, a family get-together, etc., your summer schedule can get downright burdensome.
In this day and age of technology, I think that we parents have relied too much on gadgets and gizmos to entertain our kids instead of oldfashioned time together as a family. After our kids spend all this time on cell phones, I-pods, handheld video game devices, we wonder why they can’t pay attention to anything for more than 30 seconds? We are training them that way!
When it comes down to it, all kids really want from their parents is their time. No, they are not going to come right out and say it, but they know when you are being substituted for a gadget, new toy, etc. Having had thousands of conversations with students over the past decade, one thing is for certain: they really do want time with their parents.
Thisis no easy task for parents. In a tougher economy, jobs are scarce and often parents are forced to work two jobs or extended hours at their job if available. After taking care of things at home, parents are usually exhausted. Thejob of parenting, however, never ends.
Just this past week I had some graduate work to finish up: I was working at my summer job, and had to try to get the lawn mowed in the few days where it actually wasn’t raining. One nice thing that I have recognized is that my kids love to ride on the riding lawnmower with me. My kids could be inside playing or outside throwing the ball around, but invariably, if I am on the mower, they all choose to take turns riding along. They love it.
I obviously don’t have teenage kids, so that plays in my favor now, but hopefully by that age they will be the ones on the mower doing the lawn mowing. Our kids may not always get to be entertained, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be included in the family activity (work) taking place.
As a parent, I have also had to learn how to not schedule my life to death. Doesn’t it seem like every job has about a thousand different committees? People could committee themselves to death and the only people who pay the price for it are spouses and kids. While volunteering is a good thing, sometimes we just have to say, “No.”
When my kids got to the age where they were active in tee-ball and things of that nature, I had to say no to things like men’s league softball and the weekly golf league. While those are great things for guys to participate in, what does it tell my kids if I am missing their tee-ball games? All they want is my time.
The culture we live in has created a schedule so busy that the ones pushed out of our time the most is our families. Chasing the dollar and hunting for self-gratification should never become more important than raising our kids.
We may think our kids need the new cell phone, computer game, or cool new gadget, but in reality all they need is our time.
Mitch Dorr, a Cook County
High School Class of 1993
graduate, is now a social
studies teacher and coach at
his former alma mater. Mitch
coaches Vikings football and
boys’ basketball.
Leave a Reply