Now that we’ve made it through Monday, let’s rewind to the weekend and talk about social lives.
What a sweet milestone that came at just the right time.
Lots o’ kiddos all together, all the time.
I mean…how presh.
More specifically, the social lives of kiddos—and the facilitation effort required by the parents to make all things happen!
The headline: man, does it take some work. But the reward is usually worth the effort. :)
Exhibit A: Chica and her little friends on Saturday morning, after her inaugural sleepover Friday night. Woohoo!
What a sweet milestone that came at just the right time.
Chica’s still a little unsure about going to other people’s households to sleep over, and honestly, so am I. So it was wonderful to have the opportunity to host two of her little friends and allow Chica to dip a toe in the sleepover water in a way that felt completely safe and anxiety-free.
All fun and no stress. And the night was a definite success (tehe…I rhymed).
It was the perfect weekend for a social pick-me-up, considering the heightened emotions of all kiddos everywhere, as school barrels toward its end, and testing and homework is at its peak.
Chica even got a bonus round of fun—siblings included, yippee!—yesterday, with some swimming at a friend’s house. Throw in a birthday party for one of Little Man’s classmates on Saturday afternoon, and it was a packed weekend for my babies.
So, yay, for some kiddo levity to counteract the Spring Burnout they’ve been facing.
THAT SAID.
I’ve spoken many times on this here blog about the emotional burden it takes for me to put myself out there on behalf of my kiddos to befriend parents, get to know them, become comfortable with them, and continue positive relationships so my crazies can reap the benefits.
I’ve spoken many times on this here blog about the emotional burden it takes for me to put myself out there on behalf of my kiddos to befriend parents, get to know them, become comfortable with them, and continue positive relationships so my crazies can reap the benefits.
The sleepover this weekend—along with the background work it required, to be comfortable with both parents and kiddos—is a prime example of the significant work it takes in these years to foster friendships.
Not to mention, the TIME. Oh, the time.
It takes a heaping chunk of my time (mental and physical) these days to facilitate the social activity of my kiddos.
And I feel like it’s only going to take more and more (and MORE) out of me.
It’s definitely going to be a really tricky balance of protecting my own sanity and safe-guarding my own time, versus giving my kiddos all the joy and interaction and activity that will help them grow into happy and adept fully-fledged humans.
The other tricky balance will be keeping all three of my kiddos collectively happy as we progress in this familial social life stage.
We’ve been SO fortunate up to this point to be able to flock together about 99% of the time.
Meaning, we’ve had a lot of families we play with, and it’s been a big hoard of happy kiddos all playing together, and not a whole lot of one-on-one situations going on.
It often looks like this at any given time:
Lots o’ kiddos all together, all the time.
Which is great, efficient, and leads to lots of hilarious chaotic time. And honestly, it’s what I prefer.
But there are definitely days ahead—more sleepovers, birthday parties, friends who don’t have siblings and don’t want to deal with our three-for-the-price-of-one situation—when we’re going to have to divide and conquer, any that’s going to be a whole new load o’ “fun” to deal with.
Like the bday party Little Man attended on Saturday that was a cooking activity, so the head count was important and we couldn’t just bring all our extra kiddos, so the girlies had to stay home with daddy.
Pause for some pics of cooking cuteness:
I mean…how presh.
So basically…my points of this random post are this:
1. Chica had her first sleepover—woohoo!
2. Arranging social activity for kiddos is exhausting.
3. It’s extra-exhausting when you have three kiddos.
4. It’s perhaps extra-extra exhausting when you have three kiddos, you’re a protective parent, and you’re prone to being a homebody.
4. It’s tough to keep siblings happy when one gets to do something with friends and the other doesn’t.
It’s going to be a long, windy and ever-changing road raising these kiddos and giving them happy social lives, but we’re gonna do our best and keep our kiddos as happy as possible.
And we’re going to make sure to soak in all the lazy weekend time we can get, because it’s going to be few and far between as the years go on, ha.
Happy Monday, peeps!
Over and out.
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