I recently  read an article  about embracing mornings as family time.   If your house is anything like mine mornings are crazy!  Typically someone has a melt down about not being able to find socks or I am sending kids back up stairs with two minutes to get out the door because they did not brush their teeth.

The thought of mornings being a wonderful family time seems strange to me.  However with the kids busy schedule and our crazy lives it is true that we do not sit around the table often as a family.  We try to do Sunday suppers with proper place settings and manners but as soon as we are into our competitive dance  season that routine is totally out the window.  So the family Sunday supper lasts September  through to December in our house.

There are 168 hours in a week.  Typically in our society we now work about 50 hours and sleep about 56 hours but what has happened to the other 62?  Facebook and personal emails eat up about 2 hours a day but that is still only 14 hours and then television and books maybe another 2 to 3 hours a day that still should leave 27 hours of free time.  Then church or quiet meditation perhaps another 2 hours per week.  However I doubt that there is a single person reading this that believes they have 25 hours of free time in their week to spend with their family.

Most of us spend the other at least 15 hours shuffling our kids  to Move with Grace dance studio, or hockey or gymnastics and sitting in the lobby of the dance studio or on a bench in an aerna.  I often talk to mothers at the dance studio that feel that they spend more time with one child then the other due to the kids activities.  I know it was a happy day in my house when all three kids decided to take  dance lessons.  One activity, one place to drive however it has not solved the problem that we do not eat together as a family?

Why is this important?  I want connection with my kids and my husband.   I want them to know table manners  and I would like to start my day with what is truly important,  family.

We are so rushed in our daily lives. Here is the challenge.  Get up earlier.  Before the kids.  Have your coffee and start your day with something for you.  A meditation,  answering personal emails, a run or going to the gym.   The most sucessful people in the world are reported on average to be up and going by 5:58 am.

Set the table and make pancakes and bacon.

Do it for a week …. see if it works for your family.

I am putting a comment box on my blog!  Let me know if you, my Move with Grace Dance studio parents,  are up for the challenge and if it works for you!

PS: If you are a Cambridge Winter Hawk family or Cambridge Kips Gymnastics family, feel free to chyme in as well 🙂

Robyn Tedesco – Artistic Director

Move With Grace Dance Studio Cambridge ON