Stay Home with your Kids Day

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Happy Stay Home with Your Kids Day! After spending much of the summer away, doing a fellowship, my "kid" is on her second week home and I couldn't be happier. Well, actually I could be happier -- if this weren't her last week home.

When you're raising little kids, the summers are long. You spend a lot of time entertaining. Refereeing. Fighting kid boredom and trying to find a few minutes for yourself without plunking your kids in front of the television or some form of technology. By this point in the summer, it's easy to be looking forward to their return to school, although saying goodbye to them -- and summer -- is bittersweet.

And then they're teenagers, out of the house more than they're in it, which can sometimes be a good thing. They return home to sleep in their own beds and, perhaps, to drive you a little (or a lot) crazy. When things are calm and they're safe and sound asleep under your roof, all of the tension slips away. You're grateful for their safety and happy for those moments of connection that may catch you completely by surprise.

Then, they do what you've raised them to do -- they go off to college, or the military, or to an apartment or home of their own. The house that seemed too noisy too much of the time now, more often than not, seems too quiet. You don't miss the arguments, the cries of "I'm bored!" or the nag-and-ignore cycle that kicks in when there's too much to do and too little time.

But you miss them.

I'm thoroughly grateful that my "kid," who will be 21 in November, is actually home for Stay Home with Your Kids Day. I have piles of things to do on every front -- back-to-school prep, writing projects, household stuff -- but today, I will make sure to set things aside. I try to do this every day when she is here because her time at home is so limited, but I don't always do it graciously. Deadlines, both external and self-imposed, make it hard to ignore the stress that creeps in when I'm doing "nothing," and I give away my impatience with a sigh, an expression or some other indication that there's something else I should be doing.

But, when I get to spend time with her, it's a treat. I like the person she has become and love getting glimpses into the person still to be. She's smart, funny and kind -- all the things I hoped she'd always be back when we spent our summers trying to fill endless days with crafts and PBS and trips to the library. And no matter how far behind I get, I never regret setting stuff aside to just be with her.

Spend time with your kids today, if you can. If they're already back to school, spend time with them when they get home. Ask about their day. Read them a book, go for a drive, sit with them at the kitchen table. Find out a little bit about the people they're becoming.

If they're off on their own, text, call or schedule a video chat. Blame the "holiday," if you need to, but touch base. Say hello. Say I love you.

Maybe you do this every day. Or, maybe, caught up in the busyness of life, don't know how to do this, find it hard to find time to do it, or it's simply gotten away from you.

Today is as good a day as any to make the effort. Be serious or be silly, but be there, whether for a few minutes, a few hours or the whole day.

You might just find, as I have, that your kids are kind of cool.