This afternoon my husband was going for his regular mountain climb. (The mountain that defeated me, but I WILL conquer it...one day!)
He talked us all into going, as we sometimes do.
This involves driving 40 minutes to the small town with 'the mountain', the kids play in the excellent fenced off playground for about 40 minutes, my husband climbs the mountain (up and down) in around 30 minutes, then we drive 40 minutes back home.
I reluctantly agreed because I was tired (I had 4 1/2 hours sleep last night) and cranky (no explanation necessary). And when we got there...the playground was wrapped in bright orange with a sign on the gate, "Closed temporarily for maintenance".
Great!!
Now what??
It's a tiny town, there are no other playgrounds...
There is nothing in the car except water bottles & a few snacks...
There is a park at the base of the mountain, but there is nothing there except lots of grass, trees and some BBQ's & picnic tables...
I guess we could sit there for half an hour and do nothing.
Well, of course we didn't do nothing. The kids ran, picked up sticks, threw leaves, tried to spot Daddy climbing the mountain, sat on rocks, watched ants, chased magpies...and half an hour was over before we knew it.
Who needs entertainment? I'd forgotten how much fun it is to make your own fun.
Why don't we do that more often??
I watch little L play with leaves every Monday for an hour, I have taken books and things but she's quite happy wondering around with nature.
ReplyDeleteYeah, never forget the simple things. :)
I totally agree with you , and as a new mama I am suddenly all for this. ants and twigs are where its at... to hell with transformers and blah de blahs..... I am team Ant
ReplyDeleteFirst, is it just me or does anyone else feel totally exhausted just reading the first sentence of your post: "This afternoon my husband was going for his regular mountain climb." I think I can safely say that I will never use the words "regular" "mountain" and "climb" in the one sentence!
ReplyDeleteSecondly, isn't life great when the simplest things become the most fun! While I don't have kids I can't think of any mother/children scenarios but I do remember being a kid and having a backyard full of every outside toy imaginable... yet all I wanted to do was play in the dirt, catch bugs... and bury the heads of my barbies that I decapitated but that's probably a whole different topic!
Life should be simple. Complicated is too hard.