Public playground at a state park-a great way to spend the day when you don't have a lot of money...
Credit: Betty Wright | ©Betty Wright
I am a single mother of two children.
My son, the hyperactive member of our family, goes non-stop. He has been that way since before he was born. From the minute his eyes pop open in the morning to the time he falls asleep at night he is in constant motion. He runs, he jumps, he builds stuff out of scrap wood, he rearranges his swing set and calls it his ship. (He's five.)
He, also, hates to take naps and go to bed for any reason.
My daughter is, as you can assume, the opposite. She is mellow, quiet (most of the time....she's only 11 months old), she studies things to see what they do.
She will cry for her 'ba-ba' so she can take a nap.
So, what do you do when your children are on the opposite ends of the spectrum? Well, for me the answer was camping.
I know, it seems like it would be silly. But it works for us.
We live at the foothills of the Dos Cabezas Mountains in Willcox, Arizona where the history is rich and the land is beautiful. My mother comes with us and we set up camp, which includes two twin size beds set down next to eachother on a tarp, portable play pen, a jogging stroller (...was so worth the money!...), a table top gas grill, and several coolers.
For entertainment we rockhound, build the camp fire, look at the stars, and listen to sounds of the land.
Somehow the combination works.
I haven't been able to find a job since I was pregnant with my daughter so things are pretty tight for us. If we didn't have our little outings we would be at eachothers throats. So camping, even if it's only for the day, is a Godsend for us. But at the same time we've learned how to function as a true family unit. We 've learned to laugh and play and to work at something together.
My point in this is that we would not have discovered how much we actually enjoyed being together if I was still working. So I'm actually grateful for being unemployed in this day in age. I still don't know how we're making it, but we are and the rewards are tremendous.
My son, the hyperactive member of our family, goes non-stop. He has been that way since before he was born. From the minute his eyes pop open in the morning to the time he falls asleep at night he is in constant motion. He runs, he jumps, he builds stuff out of scrap wood, he rearranges his swing set and calls it his ship. (He's five.)
He, also, hates to take naps and go to bed for any reason.
My daughter is, as you can assume, the opposite. She is mellow, quiet (most of the time....she's only 11 months old), she studies things to see what they do.
She will cry for her 'ba-ba' so she can take a nap.
So, what do you do when your children are on the opposite ends of the spectrum? Well, for me the answer was camping.
I know, it seems like it would be silly. But it works for us.
We live at the foothills of the Dos Cabezas Mountains in Willcox, Arizona where the history is rich and the land is beautiful. My mother comes with us and we set up camp, which includes two twin size beds set down next to eachother on a tarp, portable play pen, a jogging stroller (...was so worth the money!...), a table top gas grill, and several coolers.
For entertainment we rockhound, build the camp fire, look at the stars, and listen to sounds of the land.
Somehow the combination works.
I haven't been able to find a job since I was pregnant with my daughter so things are pretty tight for us. If we didn't have our little outings we would be at eachothers throats. So camping, even if it's only for the day, is a Godsend for us. But at the same time we've learned how to function as a true family unit. We 've learned to laugh and play and to work at something together.
My point in this is that we would not have discovered how much we actually enjoyed being together if I was still working. So I'm actually grateful for being unemployed in this day in age. I still don't know how we're making it, but we are and the rewards are tremendous.
- Sometimes the job has to go before you connect with your family.
- I learned to be a mother, not just a provider, after I lost my job.
- Camping, or any outdoor activity, can strengthen the bonds of family.
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