The Idle Parent, Chapters 7-10 ~ Simple Entertainment

Totally forgot to write about The Idle Parent last week. So here are the things that stood out to me in Chapters 7-10

Children's toys and adult's "toys" are merely to relieve boredom with costly distraction. Instead, play games together, bang wooden spoons and pots while singing together, make art out of nature, dress up in hand me down clothing, read novels aloud as a family, dance to all different styles of music. I must admit that I would add here, watch movies together. The author might not agree, but with my family, there is a lot of verbal interaction during and after watching good movies. Also, as an artist, there is a lot of creativity going on in good movies. 

I personally have set a goal to refrain from spending unnecessary money. As a result I have become a frequent guest at several libraries and have met lots of new book and movie friends ~  completely free. Also, cooking and baking have begun to pull me in again, and it is a thrill to make tasty food for those I love.

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Responses to The Idle Parent, Chapters 5,6 ~ hospitality & education

The two things that jumped out at me from these chapters were:

1). Live communally, let them have their friends as we have ours. The Bible says in Acts 2:

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Awww..the elusiveness of hospitality..torn is one word that describes this for me, introvert is the other. 
  
Torn, because when I have company, so many times, I feel as if my other responsibilities are put on hold or at least, not given the priority they should have. It is a fragile balance..but I feel as if I am getting the hang of it. My sister is staying with us for a couple of days, and I have been able to flit around between, her, hubby, home & kitties and make sure everyone is feeling good & having fun!!! Another thing I am thrilled silly over is my new sitting area out in our music room. We have had our love seat and lazy boy chair right out in the middle in this room, and it just occurred to me (not sure why it took so long) to move the sitting area to a corner in the room, that backs up to a brick wall..I have drooled over that wall since I moved in and now it is to become the backdrop for a sitting area that will be secluded in its own sweet corner.     

My introvert-ism is another delicate aspect to weigh. I have the tendency to help people out, but if I feel pressured, I seriously run away and hide. I have always been like this and am not sure how to combat it, except to set boundaries in my mind. Any advise on this would be great cause I feel like I alienate people by the way I handle this.

2) I love that Tom says that education is for turning out children with wits & guts

When I looked up the word "wits" in the dictionary, I loved these two definitions:

the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure

powers of intelligent observation, keen perception, ingenious contrivance, or the like; mental acuity, composure, and resourcefulness

and guts ~ that boldness, bravery & at times, the ability to bare oneself in honesty. 

Linked at The Wellspring & Good Morning Girls

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Responses to The Idle Parent, Chapters 3 & 4

 

Mom is to hold on to her own pleasures and delights, taking care of herself, sharing with her kids from her overflow of loving life.

Nature is overflowing with toys for everyone. We must learn, like the animals to survive in every climate. Too hot, jump in the pool or sprinkler. Too cold, build a bonfire. Provide good soil so the kids can grow plants, flowers, edibles. Learn about nature as we sing about nature. Babies don't analyze nature, they are intertwined with it. Learn, at all ages to be this way!!!

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Responses to The Idle Parent Chapters 1 &2

Chapter 1 in a nutshell:


1) blur the distinction between work & play..sing while doing the dishes..play at important things & work at the lightest amusements


2) in the home, let mom find her sweetest jobs & dad his pleasantest play: I like this idea as a stay at home wife & mom..so many times, in our current age, the dad is expected to do equal work around the home as mom. And yes, if mom has a full time job outside the home, it should be like this. But the privilege my husband has given me to be able to stay at home also carries with it (at least for me), the home as my "office" as it were and the goal to make it into a haven of relaxation for my husband. Of course, he will help whenever I need it; I just try to not make him do too much since he works so hard for us at his job..


3) don't think of things, activities, people in terms of "liking them" or "disliking them". Learn to find appreciation in all things, so that we can enjoy stuff together and not always be about doing our own thing..

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Responses to The Idle Parent ~ The Idle Parent Manifesto

On vacation this weekend, I had lots of time in the car to read The Idle Parent. I am almost finished and have taken lots of notes to share with you..new intention: be an Idle lady. 

The manifesto highlights key areas for me to focus on this intention: 

1) nature is an endless toy store, 

2) the outdoors is our playground, 

3) sleeping is paradise, 

4) stories & songs entertain us at home during dish washing, folding clothes, crafting or making forts with blankets


5) time is free


Would love to hear your initial thoughts on the Manifesto..

Images from here, here & here

Responses to The Idle Parent..Introduction

After reading the intro. in The Idle Parent, I was struck with what we should read next. Tom promotes staying at home and having good, natural fun..not depending on outings and technology to provide the entertainment. I recently read Kisses From Katie about a young lady who has adopted 14 girls in Uganda. She was amazed at the creative imaginations of her girls who took recycled materials and made art out of them. "Thrift is poetic because it is creative." ~ G.K. Chesterton.

 An American Childhood by Annie Dillard is what I want us to read next. I read this about 10 years ago and it filled me with such joy at the wild imaginations of childhood. In The Idle Parent, Tom says that he is not promoting parents to be careless with their children, but instead, carefree..


I love so much of Tom's ideas, but a few things make me wonder..yes, leaving them alone is great to a point, but we are also supposed to be models of Christ to our kiddos. And drinking alcohol when responsible for them bothers me too. I feel I will glean a lot from this book, but there are some things that I will need to modify. How do you feel about these things?


Next, we will talk about The Idle Parent Manifesto..

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Book/Response Club

Introducing a Book/Response Club..I just would love to hear your ideas on stuff we read together. I am going to try to choose mainly library books so that hopefully we can find them easily and not have to spend money..the first book is The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson. He is an author/editor and this book is subtitled: Why Laid Back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier Kids. When I choose a book to read, it is the title, cover and back of book that draw me in. So, I don't promise all my choices to be masterpieces, but I do hope that we can glean from each one. We will read 2 chapters a week (starting with the intro. and manifesto this week and the last week we will read 3 chapters as there are 19 all together). I will post ideas and things to think about along the way and would love your ideas! Curl up in bed with hot milk spiced and sweetened, snuggle under the covers (or turn the fan on, depending on the weather) and relax with WORDS!!!

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Linked at The Better Mom, Time Warp Wife, Growing Home & lowercase letters