Stop and Sit Down

Written by: Dianne Edmonds Posted on 31 May 2012 1

I like nice chairs.

They look good and appealing.

So do lounges, swing seats, outside benches, hammocks, wooden outdoor settings and fold out lazy chairs.

Over a number of years, I have accumulated all of them, some as gifts, some in furnishing our first home, some outdoor seats I have bought more recently in my endeavour to take time to stop and sit down.

Often though, I am not as well acquainted with any of those appealing chairs or lounges as I would like to be. I noticed recently my like for chairs doesn’t equate with my ability to sit on them and spend time on them. My computer chair is the most popular chair for me in the house, we are very well acquainted, but as for the others. ...

Sometimes I find the lounge for a while, after I move the books, soft toy friends and games from them. Perhaps if there was more storage in the house we live in, the chairs would be chairs, but often, it seems when I do have a moment to sit down, I can’t find that clear space to sit down on one of those nice appealing chairs. Now am I not very neat, or have I not made an impact as a mother yet on what the meaning of a chair is? The good news is that the kitchen chairs are now doing well, after a recent rearrange, so they are a good place to go with my cup of tea and writing material.

I have visions of those days cuddled up together on the couch with a blanket reading books, and yes have clocked up many reading hours with my children. Now, as they are able to read for themselves more often, I am starting to turn my mind back to the fact that I might like to sit down a read a book myself, should I find that elusive chair space. I’ve a good friend, a mother of four, who loves to escape with a book and is much more well trained than me in this area. I will need to speak to her soon to find out how she does it. Maybe she can write some tips for us some time.

I rearranged the furniture a while back, making a space for my rocking chair, placing some books and magazines next to it for those times I got to sit down and take that ‘Time for me’. It seems however, that my husband sits on it more often than I do, figuring maybe that I got to sit on it to feed our second baby, and now it is his rocking time. Maybe it is a gift to be sitting and rocking a baby all of those hours, if not walking the floor with them, when they are babies and very little. That time doesn’t last forever, so enjoy and make the most of it, while being in the middle of it. Can you make those sitting times more special by enjoying looking at your book, even if it is only a paragraph or a page? Soak in the words and enjoy them more. Soak in that precious time with your baby.

It doesn’t last forever – even though it seems like eternity some days. We hear people say how fast time goes, but I know that it doesn’t always sink in. Hearing mums of older children make comments like “How did this happen, I still remember changing their nappy?”, shows that they experience this feeling. Now I know that those amazing mothers and midwives that I worked with, and child health nurses too, were speaking many words of wisdom in antenatal classes and in child health programs and mother’s groups we shared. They talked about looking after yourself and making time to spend with your husband or partner, and how these both are so crucial as a mother and as parents. So when setting up the chair spaces in your home and outdoor settings, place the furniture so that there is room for you AND him, and discuss that plan to sit together at times, regularly. You need sitting down time now and always, to sit and reflect, rest, listen, breathe, tune in to you, your baby, your children and your mate.

Take time for yourself and enjoy the time that you take to stop and sit down.

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