Spend time together
Eleanor Douglas-Meyers is a crafty mom from Uitenhage who writes about DIY, parenting, natural hair care, fashion, food and fun on her blog
Those who know my blog know that one-on-one time with my three year old is super important to me. It feels like he is just growing too fast and I want to ensure that special moments together are ingrained in his memory. When I think of growing up with my parents the things that spring to mind are obstacle races through the park with my mom and DIY projects with my dad. I remember my mom teaching me to sew and knit (fail) and my dad coming from night-shift to sit on the edge of my bed and find out what my day was like and tell me about his. I want that for Aidan, a deep knowledge that his parents basically “like having him around”. For the most part, love is a given in parent-child relationships (in my opinion anyway) like, is a little harder (hehehe). Mostly because its not always easy to “like” a tantrum throwing naggy pants ... what?! It’s true. I have been really busy lately and as a freelancer I often have quite a few balls in the air at the same time. With my time and mind having been occupied 24/7, I started noticing my son acting out a little to get my attention. He sometimes talks like a baby and even expects to be treated like one (I assume this is because his baby cousin who he spends most of his day with gets a lot of attention). So the other night, when he was being a bit of a brat, refusing to be cooperative in any way shape or form, I decided to calm down, put down my work and build a fort. He has a murphy bed (the ones that fold up) so it was easy to convert with nothing more than a fitted sheet. I climbed into bed with him and his eyes lit up. “You are going to get into my house with me?” I lay there listening to him tell me about his day and slowly drift off to sleep. And I felt so content. His dad is awesome with bath and bedtime when I’m drowning in projects but sometimes the projects need to come second. Not only to him, to me and my health too. The words “you can’t pour from an empty cup” keep running through my mind ... I can’t do everything and that’s okay ... as long as I can still build a killer fort with a sheet and two hair ties I’m pretty much still my son’s hero. See more from Eleanor at
