Prioritize and structure. Choices must be made
W hen the party’s over and everyone trudges back to school parents and children feel all kinds of emotions. Some are disappointed that the unscheduled or less scheduled days of summer are ending to be replaced by the highly structured predictable routine of the school year. Now it’s nose to the books for the youngsters car pools and lunches for the grown-ups and homework struggles for everyone. Some kids go kicking and screaming into the next grade while others love school and can’t wait to see what the new year will bring. Some children have missed their friends and some parents have missed their quiet time.
Structure Purpose Meaning
The truth is that school — no matter how awful it may sometimes feel — is a significant source of intellectual social emotional and spiritual stimulation. When children are out of school they often feel deprived bored and empty. Similarly retired adults often feel cut off lost and depressed when they find themselves without a meaningful daily structure. Homemakers whose children are grown or in school all day sometimes feel unfulfilled down or anxious. In other words people of all ages need their time to be constructively occupied. When it isn’t their psyche sends out messages of distress urging recalibration.
Structuring Your Time
Children’s time is almost always structured for them. For two decades or more they go to school. Adults however must structure their own time determining how to spend each day’s hours. There are some constraints of course — obligations to Hashem to family to work. But even within those constraints there are many decisions to be made.
A mother for example must decide how many hours she will spend at work outside the home (if any). She must decide how many hours she will devote to cleaning how many hours to cooking how many to direct childcare how many to her personal interests.
