Parenthood: Week 507 - Making Plans

In parenthood, everything goes differently than planned, and then you have to make new plans...constantly. Everything from cooking breakfast to bedtime to all the activities in between requires plans. These plans require preparation, and your children often distract you when you do this work. 

This past week, we’ve been reeling from the fact that we are not visiting my family in Seattle. We made these plans months ago and spent a lot of time preparing for this trip. So after a morning of moping around, we had to make plans. First, there were plans for what was right in front of us, like what we would eat for lunch, and then we had to make plans for the next week.  

We started a list of things we wanted to do with our children during break and errands we wanted to get down and started slotting them in the coming days. There was about one thing a day, some outing or activity we planned for our children. As the schedule came together, the week started looking good.  

I was determined to make the rest of this winter break work for our family. So on the first day, I took them to the mall. Too bad most of the mall was closed because we got there too early, and the open stores weren’t too interesting for my children. Lucas loved running around the empty mall, but the others were bored, so we went to Old Navy. I let them pick out t-shirts and buy them snacks. That didn't go as planned, but the afternoon did. We took them to see a kid’s movie. I almost changed plans after one of my children was not cooperative in leaving the house, but we stuck with that plan and made it work. 

The following day we planned to go to the aquarium. So I got up early, made breakfast, and got us all ready to go. We got the aquarium close to when they opened, got a pretty good parking spot, and made our way to the door. We wanted to avoid crowds by getting there early, and since our children get up early, it’s really up to us to get them there. So we did, and we found out we couldn’t get it. Even though we were members, we still needed to reserve a spot for a timed entry, and they were full until the afternoon.  

Time for a new plan. 

Fortunately, the Field Museum was next door, so we walked over there and spent the morning looking at dinosaurs.  

This is how the past week has gone. We make plans, put in the time and effort, and then have to change plans. Part of me is still sad that we didn’t spend the week in Seattle as planned, but we made new plans and made this week work.  

It’s hard to make plans. You have to make decisions quickly, often without all the information, but knowing it’s for my children helps push me through. After years of re-making plans, I’m pretty good at it, and it's one of the things that I do well that makes me feel proud to be parent.