Making time for quiet

I'm always hearing parents talk about how hard it is to make time for things in their busy family lives. They want their kids to have physical activity, artistic stimulation, and social interaction, so they make time for soccer and dance and swimming and piano and play dates and special trips. They've been told that kids even need boredom and free play, so they schedule some of that too.

At the risk of adding one more thing to that list,  one of the things that I've found really beneficial in our family is to plan time for quiet. This quiet time began as an extension of nap time, when my kids were getting too old for a nap but were still young enough to need a break in the middle of their day. 

What I started to realize was that this break never stopped being useful, no matter how old they got. It looked different during different stages, of course, so that now my eldest kids take that time to read or draw or play with quiet toys in their rooms, but the consistent part was that they had a break away from noise and activity and busyness of the day.

I think this kind of time has always been valuable, because it allows kids to regroup and then live the other parts of their lives more fully, but it is more important now than ever. In an age where our devices demand our attention so insistently, it is increasingly important that we teach our kids the capacity to take time away for quiet and reflection and rejuvenation. It's the kind of time that makes the other time we spend more worth while, and it probably wouldn't hurt if we parents made a little more time for it ourselves.