Within 3 or 4 seconds your brain has thought through everything it is going to take to get the gang up and out the door..."wake the kids, dress everyone, find all the shoes, are the swimming suits in the dirty laundry? nurse the baby, Saturday morning clean up, finish the flower beds before visitors come today, fix a bottle, pack a lunch for the picnic, load all the bikes, oh no, I'm out of peanut butter, flip flops or tennis shoes? fix breakfast, clean up breakfast, shower and possibly get to eat breakfast, and soooo much more." It could all be done by say, noon?
"Let's try to be gone by 7:30," he says. "Ummmmm," you are thinking, "Let's see, what can I cut out? I could skip showering and breakfast, grab take-out for lunch, let the kids go without shoes..."
Well, you pull it off. You, Hubby, 7 little kids, a packed suburban and loaded bike rack are out the driveway by 10:00--ish. The family has a great time swimming and eating and playing together! When the day is over and the car all unloaded your Honey turns to you and says, "Wasn't that fun?" It isn't until that moment that you ask yourself, "Was that fun?"
You, well, I have to answer honestly, "No, that wasn't actually fun. It was a lot of work, and a good experience, but fun? That hadn't necessarily come up." I jumped out of bed running and didn't stop to enjoy much of it at all. There were little snippets like little coos from the baby and watching the children play that warmed my heart, but the rest of the time I felt like a lifeguard, bus driver, cook, and chaperone. Lifeguards aren't at the beach to have fun. Bus drivers don't always share the same enthusiasm that the school children display. Does the cook savor the food, the chaperon enjoy the activity? I think they are more occupied with watching the clock or concerned that the event goes well, the food doesn't spoil, and the children don't drown.
"Is Mom supposed to have fun?"
