Do you remember the frustration of inserting your favorite VHS tape, only to be forced to wait for it to rewind completely? Or the anticipation that built week after week as you counted down to Saturday mornings for that beloved cartoon? As years passed, perhaps you found yourself staying up late to catch Friday Night Videos.
Consider the long lines at movie theaters before the days of online ticketing—what a test of patience that was! And think back to the dial-up days of the Internet, where every time you connected, you braced yourself for the agonizing wait of loading a webpage. If only today’s generation could experience that slow pace; perhaps they wouldn’t constantly click their mice, exasperated by buffering videos or slow-loading pages.
All that waiting fostered resilience, didn’t it? That’s why it’s so bewildering to me when my children grumble over a brief commercial break (they rarely have to endure them) or complain about a three-minute wait at an amusement park. Or the way they groan at a red light—though I must admit, they’ve inherited their father’s impatience behind the wheel.
I don’t want to come off as one of those “I walked uphill in the snow” parents, but let’s face it: kids today will never have the experience of waiting anxiously for a phone call, stressing out if someone else uses the line. Do they even know what a busy signal is? Those were the days when summers stretched on forever, countdowns to holidays felt interminable, and waiting for the ice cream truck or the first pitch of a Mets game was the highlight of our evenings.
I must confess, I’ve lost my own ability to wait. Busy parents everywhere can relate to the constant rush from one obligation to another, feeling frustrated at wasted moments—especially in places like a doctor’s office without Wi-Fi or stuck in a grocery store line. I find myself mentally tallying the tasks I could be tackling instead. So, when my kids observe us darting around with our phones and endless to-do lists, it’s no wonder they’ve adopted that same urgency to rush toward the next event.
To counteract this, I’ve decided to implement a summer slowdown policy for our family. Why not join me? There’s nothing wrong with embracing a little laziness sometimes, right? This slower pace may just help my children savor the moments a little more, allowing us to cherish the remaining weeks of summer before they slip away. Let’s hope that they won’t feel pressured to grow up too fast. After all, watching them grow is happening more quickly than I ever imagined.
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Summary:
In this article, we reflect on the lost art of waiting and how modern life’s urgency can overshadow the beauty of patience. As parents, it’s essential to embrace moments of stillness, especially during the fleeting summer days. By adopting a slower pace, we can foster a more mindful family environment that values experiences over constant rush.