When Nothing is Something

Summer is almost here and I want to strongly encourage you to do absolutely nothing!

Childhood, like a good episode of Seinfeld, ought to look like a lot of nothing. The problem is that nothing is really something and everything isn’t at all what you hoped it would be. If your child is like most children these days, he’s got too much of everything. And he is missing the joy and the wisdom that only comes from doing nothing. When your child is sitting around with a good share of nothing, I think he will discover the beat of his own heart. And when you and your child are sitting together doing nothing, your child knows he is the most special person on the planet because you choose to spend time with him.

I challenge you to pick a time every week, or possibly every day, to do nothing. This won’t be easy for some of you. So here, I’ll give you a few guidelines:

• Doing nothing means stay rooted to anything you think or feel at this particular moment (watch a bug, smell the breeze, let your body feel heavy or let your body feel light – use your senses)
• Doing nothing means be ready for spontaneous play (listen to any idea that pops into your head and say,”yes and…”
• Doing nothing means your only priority is this moment – no interruptions, no practical distractions allowed
  

When you begin with nothing, you and your child write your own script, follow your own rules, and tease all possibilities out of hiding. Trust that this time of nothing is exactly what your child needs to learn, to love, and to grow. This time of nothing will broaden your child’s curiosity, your child’s imagination, your child’s resourcefulness, and your child’s confidence to be who he is and where he is.

So when I ask you next August, “what did you do on your summer vacation”, I hope you’ll say “nothing”.


A great find: Two weeks ago in mommy and me classes, we were talking about family vacations, travel tips and travel games. When I recommended colorforms™ because they are a perfect “seat game” and even stick on airplane windows, a mom mentioned they are really hard to find these days. Wouldn’t you know, I received an e-newsletter last week from Wondertime that also mentioned colorforms™ as a perfect travel game with a link to Amazon.com. There you go! I also recommend going to Wondertime.com and signing up for their email newsletter – The parent blogs by Catherine Newman and Rand Richards Cooper alone are worth it.