Yesterday I wrote about my needing to slip away for a "moment to recover." Code phrase for "mom needs to go read for a minute so everyone leave her alone!" I received an email from someone asking why I would want to be apart from everyone to read on the holidays.
Yikes! I am not a bad mommy. I am a very attentive, involved mommy. But my sons are 19,19,17, and nearly 17. For some reason, they also have need to get away for a moment to recover. Does this indicate that we are all introverts? They even had friends and other family to visit. Even the dogs and cats took a nap while I read. Is this unusual behavior? Should I have sat in front of a TV and pretended to watch the game?
Readers, if I don’t get away to read for at least a few minutes every day, I am not a nice person. It’s true. I must find time to read even if it’s just one chapter. If deprived of reading materials, I will memorize menus, nutritional information, road signs, anything in print to devour to feed my need.
Are any of you like this?
Oh, Diane, I hear you! I, too, need time to “recover” on a daily basis… and woe betide anyone that comes between me and my book time.
If all you need to keep you sane with 4 teenage boys in the house is to sneak away to read, all by yourself, you are indeed a saint and an Amazon! I hope you find those minutes whenever you need them! You deserve every second you get. Happy Holidays, Diane–Judy Freeman
Reading is a form of meditation: it allows you to get out of your own body and in touch with a different reality/mindset. Maybe if more people understood the need to read, we’d have less hostility in the world!
My kids are two and four, and every day, at about 4:00, it’s time for Mommy to sit down and read for a bit. Especially if I’ve been with the kids all day. They can “read” too, as long as they don’t ask me to read to them!