Children Need Quiet Every Day

Children need quiet every day.  This fact is often overlooked especially in our hurried American life.  We parents have believed a lie that in order to be a good parent we must provide our children with as many activities and learning experiences as we can pack into a day.  We have believed that they need to be entertained and have fun every single day.

What we are actually doing is damaging our children.

The question then becomes how can we undo the bad parenting practices and replace them with an intentional parenting strategy that includes scheduled quiet every day.

You may want to start by taking a look at your own schedule and evaluating it first.  Evaluate your schedule with three things in mind.

• God
• Spouse
• Children
• Then everything else

“We must have some room to breathe.

We need freedom to think and permission to heal.

Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity.

No one has the time to listen, let alone love.

Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over

by our high-speed good intentions.

Is God now pro-exhaustion?

Doesn’t He lead people beside the still waters anymore?

Who plundered those wide-open spaces of the past,

and how can we get them back?

There are no fallow lands for our emotions

to lie down and rest in.”

― Richard A. Swenson author of Margin

Now, take a look at your child’s schedule. Does your child have at least one hour of quiet a day?  If your child is an introvert they will require more quiet time.  Analyze your child’s extracurricular activities.

How can you change your schedule to allow for your child’s daily need for quiet?

Quiet Activities

• origami

• napping

• chalkboard

• reading

• puzzles

• writing

• coloring

• painting

• felt storyboard

• thinking

• activity boxes

• dolls

• listen to relaxing music

• finger puppets

• audiobook

• journaling

• string art

• hand sewing

• beading

There will always be things to do!  I challenge you to make sure you have your own quiet hour a day too.  Incorporate the practice of quiet into your Self-Care Routine…if you don’t have a routine STOP what you are doing and make one now.  You won’t last long as a Mother if you don’t take care of yourself.  You must do this so you can better serve your family.

YOUR TURN…

What ideas do you have for making a quiet hour in your home?

Blessings,

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