Appreciating The School Run

Do you take the school run for granted?

These times pass by too quickly and it’s so easy to forget how important the time spent on the school run is and how valuable that company is to your children.

I realised this week that I don’t appreciate the school run for all it’s worth and that I really should because it’s definite time given. Moments that can absolutely be time well spent. School runs can be quality time.

In our haste, we so very often forget that the school runs won’t last forever and they are snippets of our day that we can treasure…

I realised that I haven’t been embracing it like I should. I’ve taken it for granted and overlooked how utterly precious it is.

I had a moan about the loathing for the schoolyard recently and someone left a comment about how her children had grown up and she wished she still had school runs to do. And that comment really stuck with me and changed my perspective on things. I’m grateful for the comment as it really did shift my focus.

In a haze of lost shoes, water bottles and cardigans, spilt milk over breakfast, kids getting lost in morning TV, toothpaste on jumpers, searches for mislaid school books and hairbrushes and scrambling to get out the door on time, haste and rushing around we can often take it as a mundane task and we forget that that time is a gift.

As I watched Noah bounding into school from the gates a few days ago something struck me. He took the time to look back. He took a moment to wave, joining the back of the queue in a hurry and bundling into school surrounded by his mates and the willingness they had to chat to him as he joined them, he turned and sourced my presence. He took the time to love me from afar as I watched from the sidelines.

In all his littleness and innocence at 5 years old, he made the time. He took a moment and spared it for me. Without even thinking he gave a fleeting glance filled with love and thoughtfulness, to me.

Coupled together with the thought-provoking comment from last week, that moment reminded me how precious the school run really is and how I’ve been taking that for granted.

I’d lost sight of a quality amount of time shared with my children that’s for the taking every day and sits right under my nose.

I’d become complacent about the richness of it.

So I made a promise to myself to make an effort to turn the school run into quality time. I don’t want the process to just be about getting to school. I want to take morning moments and use them to their full potential.

I want to stop the hurry.

I want to cherish those moments before they fade away.

I don’t want to look back on the school runs as chaos and a chore.

I want to embrace the school runs for the ability they have to be a lovely memory for the kids.

So we started that today.

We played I spy. We looked at the sky and searched for the moon. I told them how special it made me feel when I held their hands. They beamed. Simple things. Moments.

And tomorrow we’ll endeavour to do the same.

I’ve no doubt we’ll still have chaotic mornings, toothpaste on jumpers and missing shoes. I’ve no doubt we’ll run late and we’ll speed walk school. But I’ve also no doubt that we can make that time quality.

I made a list of some simple things we can do whilst walking to school:

❤ Take a moment to look at the sky
❤ Pick a daisy for your child
❤ Look for frosty leaves and pick them up
❤ Avoid the cracks in the floor
❤ Play I-spy
❤ Discuss what you’d like for tea
❤Tell them how special you feel when they hold your hand
❤Taste the raindrops with your tongue
❤Blow bubbles
❤Look at things you usually pass by: spider webs, dew drops, reflections in puddles
❤Look at the morning moon in the sky
❤Look for aeroplanes and discuss where they may be going or where you’d like to go on
❤Put a song on your phone and sing loudly
❤Tell jokes
❤Tell stories of memories that make you smile
❤Make school run memories

And if drive:
❤Turn the music up loud
❤Wind the windows down
❤Still search for the moon
❤Still tell jokes
❤Park the car a little further from the school and take a few minutes walking together walk