Know
As I was perusing through my morning email yesterday, I happened upon a daily newsletter from a women whom I adore. Jill Salzman is a female entrepreneur who inspires women all over the world to follow their passion, their heart, as they enjoy their own entrepreneurial journey. Additionally, she's the single mom of two delightful daughters. Miss Roses and Miss Sunshine are her elementary- and middle-school kids. (She wisely does not reveal their faces or their names, but as a community, we feel as if we know them well.)
Jill, like most of us, is trying to navigate her kid's learning experience while she herself is working from home. Sound familiar? If so, you will appreciate the tidbit she sent out yesterday:
It's been really nice to be back in school.
My coworking colleagues are Miss Sunshine the 13-year old and Miss Roses the 10-year old. They're going to school remotely so I get to help with math, participate in gym class, and brainstorm adjectives every day. I've given up trying to avoid their interruptions and am now a full participant in the 5th and 8th grades. It's been an eye-opening experience.
When you're 10 and you're asked to "write down 8 adjectives that describe you," you have no earthly idea how to describe yourself yet. When you're 13 and you have to write a speech to give to the class virtually, it's hard to see how doing so will be valuable in the future.
Kids live in the now. They're not yet in their heads about their faults. They don't think about the future and that practicing skills now might be helpful later on. There's something there for us to learn from our kids. We spend way more time than they do painting pictures of a future that we truly know nothing about. If we focused on what's happening around us in the moment more often, we'd be able to get through the day without piling the worries on.
Take it from Miss Roses and her daily stance on breaks between classes: "Let's just have a dance party."
This piece really resonated with me, just as I know it does for you. Sometimes we need someone to say: It is okay to take a break.
It is okay to dance your way to good mental and physical health. In fact, I highly recommend it. But the tidbit I find especially relevant to my readers is that we should appreciate living in the now because we really don't know what the future holds. Could you have predicted our current situation a year ago? Let's stop and smell the roses, or if you live in a cool climate, crunch some leaves, so to speak. Put simply:
▪ Take a break. We all need to get a little head space every day.
▪ Start a dance party with your kids to improve your mental and physical health.
▪ Write a list of adjectives that describe yourself and your family members. Share this list with one another.
| ▪ | Take a break. We all need to get a little head space every day. |
| ▪ | Start a dance party with your kids to improve your mental and physical health. |
| ▪ | Write a list of adjectives that describe yourself and your family members. Share this list with one another. |
By taking a break and appreciating one another, you are not only making memories, delightful memories from a highly unusual situation, but you are building a foundation of trust and love with your kids. You are modeling resilience and helping them learn how to develop open, honest relationships.
You've got this!
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