There are so many things society tells us we should worry about as a parent in today's world: getting the best education, the best experiences, having well mannered, well rounded children who are honest and ethically grounded, that need to speak more than one language, have a firm grasp on how to serve to their family, friends, community, country, and world, all while participating in at least 3 activities a week. Essentially, society is telling our children "go, go, go, keep striving, be better than The Joneses, keep reaching for the stars!"
Which is all well and good, but what about enjoying life?
What about enjoying what you have instead of worrying about what you don't have?
Why are we all struggling so much to keep up with The Joneses of the rest of the world?
We have some family history that involves a member of extended family who is always trying to be bigger, better, richer, smarter, etc than anyone around them. There's no experience that's uniquely yours, their story is always better than yours, bigger than yours, or somehow they made your story possible. Consequently, they're never satisfied with anything that they have been blessed with. They strive and strive and strive for one thing and as soon as they get it, they're on to the next thing. I think people originally thought that this behavior would get better with age, but it's actually gotten worse. And it's just exhausting to watch this person continue to behave in this manner with total disregard of how it may/may not be affecting those around them.
But it's a great teaching lesson for the kiddos.
The older we've gotten the more we've learned that The Joneses of the World will always be out there. We've come so far from where we were 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 3 seconds ago, but there will always be someone who's farther than we are, based on society's measuring stick and they usually got there in half the time. Currently, we live in an environment of people who waited until they were
"financially secure" or "experienced the world" before they had children and settled in the suburbs. They take worldly vacations, they donate multiple $1000 items to school fundraisers, they own million dollar home and 3 cars, their kids have no concept of cheap macaroni and cheese. It's a surreal environment. But at no point, have we felt like we needed to keep up with them. Sure, I feel like a child picking up children at the school in the afternoons (most of the people I thought were grandparents picking up kiddos are actually the parents of kiddos), but I wouldn't change our life for a second. I don't envy their life, I'm grateful for ours.
I want the kiddos to learn that while they're constantly striving for their next big goal, that they should also be enjoying the life they have. God blesses them every day with something as simple as air and it's so important to me that they get that. I want them to know that having the coolest xyz, or having the most xyz, or the biggest xyz isn't what life is about.
It's not about The Joneses.
It's about the little moments that add up to the big moments. It's about working to live, but not living to work. It's about being compassionate. It's about having faith. It's about being grateful. It's about being honest with others and more importantly, yourself. It's about the simple things.
So while they're reaching for the stars, I desperately hope they look around and enjoy the view of the world at their finger tips.
