It’s National Son and Daughter Day! Much like Mother’s and Father’s Day, this holiday is meant to encourage parents to celebrate their children and to create intentional loving memories with them. It’s as simple as pausing more to appreciate the little humans or as grand as throwing a big party in their honor.
We live in an era where, more than ever, our attention is competing with enormous amounts of information, streaming entertainment, and activities, distracting us from the present moment and from intentionally living with those closest to us. Our attention is terribly divided – seems like a natural state of being for a mom, am I right?
National Son and Daughter Day steers us back to the importance of intentional presence and gratitude for our children even in the daily moments. If you’re thinking, “I have a million and half demands and responsibilities running through my brain while simultaneously nursing one kid that is teething, correcting another who is throwing his snack everywhere, and half listening to another who is whining every 90 seconds about not getting candy for breakfast. I don’t have time to find peace let alone this precious ‘presence’ that you speak of!”
Yep, I get you.
If you’re curious how to do this in day-to-day living, I encourage you to read “Tap In Not Out.” It’s a to-the-point, funny, quick read. Ideal, right? Mama’s freetime is a limited luxury!
As for today and beyond, I invite you to mark National Son and Daughter Day with the same level of importance as any other major holiday and watch the positive impact it has on your kids. Get creative! Maybe you create a big dinner celebration for your children to initiate a gratitude mindset going forward in the family or maybe this is something you already practice and you commemorate it with a fun cake or going out for ice cream. Either way, the idea is to show our sons and daughters that they are special and loved. Yes, there are highs and lows of chaos and bliss within family, but today is an opportunity to remind our babies that no matter how hard a day gets, they are loved.
