Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Slowdown...

Slowdown has hit us hard...
Beginning November 2008 I have been carefully monitoring the bright red and yellow "50%-75%-we'll pay you to take it" posters that have popped all around the block. Worried by the sight of empty retail spaces around... vacant lots with clearly marked parking spaces, I have made a choice to take a new optimistic view on this.
Since things have slowed down I have had more time to spend with my daughter - and I mean quality time.
Zoe and I have started cooking together, she can now cut some vegetables and make her salad "for when my daddy gets back from work"... In the morning we actually have time to chew our breakfast. We sit around the kitchen table and assemble puzzles (thanks to grandma). We read books, we go swimming - long story shot, slowdown has truly opened me up to the opportunity of spending time with Zoe.
I have had to tap into the best resource I had - my childhood memories, in sunny Jerusalem, and not my wallet to go out for yet another paid activity... As a parent raising a kid in the cold North East, I have had to adapt some of the activities to the cold climate, but all in all it seems to be working just fine.
I have time to think about how and why we raise our children the way we do. I mean is it right to have our children raised by other women (and I'm sorry though I do know one stay at home dad - most caregivers are still women), who leave their children to be raised by other women. I know it's some sort of cycle I can't even attempt to crack, but it just got me thinking are we going about this the right way?
Yes, I know so much has been written about this, I'm certainly not the first to have stumble upon the thought. But maybe this slowdown has humbled me and created true space to allow me to really absorb this unique period in my life? To have these moments of quite time - without the phone buzzing, the e-mail pop-ups, the very stressful working mother trap. Perhaps this slowdown is allowing me to catch up with myself, making room for Zoe to become a very real part of my life as much as I am hers, and maybe it's her turning 3 last week that has allowed me to reflect on my ever changing and spacial relationship I have with her?

1 comment:

Henriette Ivanans said...

I think it's some kind of blessing in disguise...Remember your first entry is about how quickly Zoe is growing up! H xo