Bottling the energy from kids

We hear it every day. Sometimes we even say it. “I wish I could bottle their energy for myself!” The reply is usually a chuckle about selling it, too. We see our children running around and having a wonderful time when we feel depleted and tired, and we think that we need their energy for ourselves.

But do we really?

For starters, a lot of us probably eat and drink junk that doesn’t provide us with good energy. We also engage in unhealthy habits, like not exercising enough or sleeping enough. But even when we do, so many parents still feel so exhausted—and I think it has a lot to do with our modern lifestyles in general.

When you look at how our ancestors lived with the seasons, they were busy just as much as we are if not more; they had to grow their food and prepare it, build their own homes and they had very little leisure time. But today, we feel pressured to “do and have it all,” and often have to have two parents working to make ends meet. Most of us are going from before sunup to long after sundown, back when our ancestors would probably be asleep.

What if we decided to go to bed at the same time our kids go to bed? And what if we pared back on our schedules to give us more down time? Some of us think it’s impossible—and for some families, maybe it is. But all of these modern conveniences weren’t made to enable us longer working hours—they were made to make life easier. Perhaps if we took care to use our time and energy more wisely, it would more closely mirror the energy of our kids.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia