Excuse me a moment, I have to go and feed our unicorn. Be right back.
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, I wanted to ask you something. If you had to tell me what you thought would make a childhood magical, what would you say?
My natural inclination is to answer like I was living the Enjoying The Small Things life. This woman is freaking incredible. I am often floored by her amazing gift to make everyday experiences feel like they’re coming straight out of a fairytale. Her way with words, the kinds of photographs that she takes and the way little moments become big memorable ones, leaves me yearning to do the same. Not in a jealous, “I need to be her” way, but in a “Oh my word, my kids would love this too” kind of way.
So to an extent I try and bring the magic to the every day mundane that my kids live out.
We are all about the tooth fairy, when “Farmer Christmas” comes we go visit him and his fairy at Uncle Pauls and gosh darnit, I will try my damnedest to make parties awesome. It’s not something I do because I want to show up other Moms or kill it on Pinterest (although I wouldn’t complain about that last one), I do it because I want my kids to be able to look back at their childhood and remember all the fun things that we used to do. Remembering their childhood and feeling warm and fuzzy about it is important to me.
But I think I’ve been getting it all a bit wrong.
Yes, of course those things are fun and dare I say, important, but they’re definitely not the most important.
If you had to find one of my kids right now, sat them down and asked them what their favourite thing is that we do at home, do you know what they’ll say? Friday night pizza and movies. I know right? How can it be so simple? And yet it is. Obviously they really enjoy their parties, get super excited for all the imaginary people visiting (that I am going to have to explain at some point) and love doing the planned fun things that we do, but it’s clearly not what they enjoy the most.
Warm and fuzzy childhood memories don’t have to be magical. They just have to have the whole family together, focused on one thing and having fun.
So that’s what we’re going to do more of.
And as they say, a family that onsies together, stays together. Well that’s what I say anyway.
(Catch this and more on my snapchat: cindyalfino. Want to figure out how Sanpchat works? Here’s the low down)
Reason 2662524 to have kids. And also Snapchat ? pic.twitter.com/CbAKgZuhQN
— Snap: cindyalfino (@CindyAlfino) May 8, 2016
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4 comments
It’s so true isn’t it. It is the small things, sometimes the most insignificant things that can make a childhood so magical.
I grew up never believing in any imaginary people. Although my mom did sort of try (tooth fairy once or twice but she always forgot and had to leave a note from the tooth fairy explaining the delay – see that memory right there makes me smile! Her trying was magical enough) my dad was adamant that he would never lie to me. And to this day he never has. I can ask him absolutely anything and he will answer truthfully and unapologetically. That to me made my childhood magical. I could always count on the truth from my dad. My mom is the sugar coating sweetheart that I could rely on to make things seem not so bad/serious/embarrassing.
Then there were other memories that made my childhood feel so magical – camping in the back garden, Star Trek binge watching, afternoon naps in my parents bed with us all cuddled up, surprise visit from my mom at a hockey game, freedom to speak my mind and share my opinions, my first bank account at age 10 (had a Tweety Bird bank card), playing in the peach trees and pretending it was a space ship (see clearly watched way too much Star Trek!!), me and my mom painting our toe nails in the sunshine. Gosh I could keep going but you get what I mean.
I know exactly what you mean! For me it was playing with my Barbies and my borther’s GI Joe in our back garden, cooking “potions” of anything we could sneak from the pantry on the fire, making a mud pool and sitting in it all afternoon, tents in the lounge, renting DVD’s and watching them 3 times before having to give it back. Gosh. So much fun!
My take on it is that it’s the intent and love that we pour into the moment -whether its big or small,fancy or simple- that make it magical.
And it is clear from the snippets of your life on this blog that you have the magical ingredients already: intention and love. X
I like that take.
The only problem that I consistently find when I battle it out with myself, is when I can’t Pinterest a moment, was it even worth having. OK, not to that extent all the time, but you know what I mean? If I haven’t made it awesome, is it still awesome?