Everyone’s moving too fast. Everyone. Kids included. Maybe kids most especially. Doesn’t matter what type of home our children are being raised in, single, married, or stepfamily. Whatever “family” dynamics are playing out in your household…your children likely have precious little time to simply “play.”

According to Ann Kroeker author of “Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families” there is virtually no margin left in our lives for simple play.

Sadly, everyone (our kids included) are paying the price for this fast-forward lifestyle. Kroeker wonders what would it cost us parents for our children to someday be able to recall their growing up years and say, “I lived a deliciously slow childhood.” When interpreted means,  “Long walks in the woods; catching fireflies in jars; wading through creeks; tromping over piles of snow; sitting all afternoon in front of a fireplace; pretending, imagining, and creatively mingling reading and playing with meaningful work.” Sounds like bliss. Like the author, I wonder too. How do I begin to slow my family down, interrupt the fast-track train we’re already on?

Kroeker suggests some simple ways to slow down fast…. and it all starts with working on an “inner-slow” and that starts with changing how we view life, what we deem most valuable, looking far down the road and making certain we are seeing what’s important and what’s not.

Slow Notes from Not So Fast:

Questions to Better Understand How Living “Too Busy” is Affecting Your Family

• How fast is our family usually operating on a scale of one to ten? What does this “feel” like to us?
• What effect is our current pace of life having on us as a family and as individuals? Is it positive or negative?
• Make a list of our week’s activities. Be brutal…cut and slash...then relax and smile.
• What is our motivation for keeping up this pace? Peer pressure or “inner” pressure?
• Describe what a slower pace would look like, feel like, and how do we make it happen?

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