Spring 2017

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“W here did he run off to now?” I wondered. Hav-
ing told this son of mine that we would finish
that spelling lesson after our quiet afternoon
reading time, I was somehow surprised when he was nowhere
to be found. I was feeling just a bit annoyed as I sought him out
that day and the feelings only intensified when I found a pile
of cardboard scraps on the ground with open scissors nearby.
I glared at the mess, as I rehearsed my “clean-up speech” in my
head. Soon enough, I found the culprit on both fronts wielding
a new cardboard sword at some imaginary foe in our backyard.
I have a soft spot for boy battles and the sight of this new one
was enough to help me calm down before walking outside. As I
approached him, he turned tomewith a grin.“Mom, I amEsteban
from The King’s Fifth.” Inspired by his reading, he had grabbed
cardboard to fashion a Spanish rapier for himself replete with an
intricate cardboard and duct-tape hilt. As he stopped his duel,
bits and pieces of the story gushed out. This son, who is not all
that talkative, couldn’t stop relaying the battles as well as the
angst of journeying with this boy, Esteban, who had opposed
greed, succumbed to it, and then came out from that dark pe-
riod in his life.
The urgency of the spelling lesson faded into the background
as we talked about exploration, the lust of money, and choosing
the right path. Once he ran out of words and I finished admir-
ing his intricate sword creation, we did make our way inside to
finish the other “school” and clean up that mess. Along the way,
I found myself thankful for the flexibility we had to pursue this
bunny trail.
We live in hurried times where a busy schedule is worn
like a badge of honor. But in our busyness, we miss the pro-
cessing and the inculcating of the lessons we are learn-
ing. We miss out on those lessons our children discover
on their own. There is beauty in slowing down. In a world
screaming to have your children running from activity
to activity, parents have the power to say no. You have
the opportunity to intentionally determine your own fam-
ily’s schedule. Sometimes this means saying no to good
things so you can pursue what is better. Sometimes this
means saying no to DOING, so your children have time
to simply BE.
You are the gatekeeper of time, the protector of childhood,
the encourager of deep thinking. You accomplish this by creat-
ing time for the following three pursuits:
1. TIME TO READ
As guardians of our children’s time, we need to carve out time
to read. Reading is a slow activity and in this fast-paced world
where we are in constant search of stimulation, reading can of-
tentimes find itself on the backburner. We need to model this
slowing down by reading ourselves and establish a home cul-
ture where reading is prioritized. It is when our kids marinate in
the rich stories from the past that they formulate the ideas and
principles necessary to guide them in the future. This means that
we want to not only create time to read, but look to find great
books for our children to feast on. For instance, instead of hand-
ing our sons the potty-humor infused books marketed to boys
today, we find grand tales of adventure that inspire their moral
imagination and help them become the brave men or tomor-
row. Enjoying the slow art of reading, means they have time to
really embrace and process what they are reading. Books like St.
George and the Dragon not only tell an exciting story, but they
also communicate that our children can defeat the dragons that
they will meet in their lifetime whether those dragons come in
the form of general life struggles or standing against injustice
and protecting the weak.
2. TIME TO PLAY
Protecting childhood means providing time and the encourage-
ment to play. It is in play that the lessons learned through read-
PARENTS: GATEKEEPERS OF TIME
By Heather Haupt