Many parents are now in the rundown to graduation – whether it be from pre-school, primary school or high school.
Whatever ages your children are, I urge you to look into the future and picture them at a time when they're ready to leave home. Picture the day when the choice about how much time you spend with your children is no longer yours to make.
Believe me, when your kids are out of the house and on their own, their schedules will be more important than yours in determining the time you spend together.
Now is when you should realise that the time you spend with your kids is precious and fleeting. If you’re still stuck in the sometimes overwhelming routines of nappy changes, struggles at bedtime, temper tantrums, sleepovers, arguments about computer time, tidying their rooms/bathroom, car pools, picking them up at 2am from a night out, all of these things will be gone in an instant – relatively.
Even though days feel long, the years are short, and the time at when your kids will be no longer be ‘kids’ comes so soon.
While parenting doesn’t end when the kids leave home, it does change.
When that day arrives, when you ‘graduate' from being the parent of kids at home, make sure you can reflect on a time where you made the most of every opportunity with them and where you have no regrets. Enjoy the stage of life you are in now.
But also know when that time does come, it is your time to enjoy for yourself.
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