"I'm bored. I have nothing to do." How often those of us with kids have heard that comment! Kids are kids, and they need to be taught how to occupy their time with fun and exciting things, so that the "bored" statement does not come out of their mouth too often. With my kids, it was usually just a matter of helping them choose something (by the time I got to #3, my patience was usually gone and they were told to just pick one!) out of the many resources in their rooms, i.e. read your book (my kids were avid readers and almost always had a book they were in the middle of reading). Kids grow up and what once was boredom evolves into being-in-a-rut. How does this happen? We live in a generation of gadgets & electronics. Fios, cable, dish TV offers us a smorgasbord of shows to watch at any time of day or night. When I was a kid, we had 6 channels in NY that I can recall - 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 & 11. High speed internet keeps us connected to people thousands of miles away from us. I phones, i pads, i pods - i, i, i !!!! So, how the heck do we get in a rut? We go to work for 8-12 hours a day (depending on traffic, 12 hours is not unheard of in our area). We come home. We make dinner. We eat dinner. We watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. We clean up from dinner. We take the dog out and talk for 30 minutes about our day. We go to bed by 9:30, as we get up at 4am. The alarm goes off @ 4am and it starts all over again. Those with kids still at home may have a bit different scenario: wake up at 5:30am. Get breakfast & lunches ready. Get the kids up, dressed. Give them breakfast. Get them off to school. Go to work. Come home. Run the kids to soccer or baseball or football or swim practice. Cook dinner. Do homework with kids. Run kids to Religious Education class. Get home from RE. Get kids ready for bed. Watch a show on TV. Kids wake you up in your recliner to tell you they are going to bed. You look at your spouse sleeping on the couch and realize you haven't asked how his/her day was. You go to bed. The alarm goes off at 5:30am and it starts all over again. Any wonder why we get in a rut! We need to take time for ourselves - mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually - and not just go through the motions of life. Life is a wonderful gift. To just exist and not truly live is not being a gracious accepter of the gift!
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