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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

'Un' Productive Time

Why is it so hard to be unproductive these days and why do I feel like I'm 'not enough' as a mom when I let my children engage in (what might look to others as) unproductive play?  I believe our society is so overly focused on productivity and measuring worth by how 'busy' we are that it has become increasingly difficult to not only engage in but ENJOY 'un' productive time.  Who loses out as a result?  We all do!  Now let me clarify what I mean by unproductive time.  Engaging in activities that have no real 'purpose' in the eyes of others yet in the eye of the person engaged in it it is wholly fun and satisfying.  Take for example yesterday afternoon, my 2 sons were playing a game in which they took their car seats out of the car and were sitting in them in the driveway tipping them over and pretending to race one another while my daughter was pretending to be a visitor from Africa who did not speak English while I organized our desk drawer and did minor surgery on a doll whose legs had become disconnected from her torso. (ok, so maybe that was somewhat productive:).  Personally I see and experience the value in slowing down to be in the moment and I believe in the value of this for my children.  What bothers me is that there seems to be this little nagging voice, present in those moments, telling me I'm not 'doing' enough.  Does anyone relate?  I'm on a mission to put it to rest.  Enjoy the moments in my day or week that are not really going to change the world (although I'm all for that and pursue it at other times) and just experience them for what they are...may look unproductive to some but wholly productive in slowing me down to experience these fleeting moments with my children! 

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