Okay, so we haven't done it all, but it suddenly feels that way. The minis had MLK Day off from school and I took the day off so we could have a special Mom and Minis Day of Fun. Except, it wasn't really a day of fun. It was more like a Mom Tries To Talk The Minis Into Doing Anything That Involves Getting Out of The House Day. And that's why it feels like we've done it all.
I offered numerous suggestions throughout the weekend and Monday morning:
Coffee date, breakfast at a favorite diner, visiting the Capitol building, the Historical Museum, the Children's Museum, a movie, rollerskating, ice skating, going downtown, Jester Park Nature Center. I listed a good dozen things we could have done and I was met with:
"We've already done that before," or "We've already been there."
And I couldn't argue because we had. We've been to all of those places and have done all of those things.
Our "get out and do things!" lifestyle has happened due to a combination of reasons: my need to get out of the house since I work from home, us wanting to raise our kids with all kinds of experiences, and our love for our city and all of the awesome things it offers. How could we not want to do those things?? But now I kind of get what my minis are feeling.
We've been to all of those places that are now the "cool" places to take kids. I like to tell myself we helped make them cool years ago. The minis are still too young for a lot of the things the older kids are doing, but they're getting too big for some of the little kids activities. They've traded our Mom & Minis Days Out for time at home.
Rent a movie, order food from GrubHub so we don't even have to leave, play video games or on the Kindle, play board games, and stay in our pajamas half of the day. Don't get me wrong, that's a perfect day at home for me (although mine usually also involves writing or reading a book and laundry, because that never ends), but I can only do that for so long. I love our adventures outside of the house, especially hiking or being outdoors. It's a sad fact that those things are no longer at the top of their lists.
They're attitude towards our Mom & Minis Days Out has me questioning my parenting choices. Did we do too much when they were little that we now have nothing left to experience? Have we really done all (or all that interests us) our city has to offer? I can only hope this is a phase we're going through and an adventure day won't be like pulling teeth to get them interested.
So, what did we do on Monday?? Well, we were home all day Saturday, a good chunk of the day on Sunday, so by Monday I was really hoping for some rollerskating action or really anything outside of the house! I made suggestion after suggestion and finally bribed them with clothes and candy to go to the mall so I could at least get a few items from our grocery list at Target. The entire "experience" lasted an hour and ended with me hissing at them that they were no longer allowed to speak to each other until we got home (a no touching or looking at each other was also applied in the car) and our favorite Chinese take out for comfort food (again for myself because I freaking deserved it).
It's only mid-week but I'm trying to gear them up for a weekend adventure somewhere. I have a list of things we could be doing and I plan to do them. Because I strongly feel that while we've done a lot, we haven't done it all.