Give Mommy Guilt the Boot

May 5, 2019
By Beth Herrild

When my children were little, I worked full time. Like many women, I felt guilty when I was at work that I wasn’t at home. I often also felt guilty when I was home that I wasn’t at work! But beyond that, I am a pretty high energy, type A person and I often felt guilty that I didn’t spend enough time being present with my kids. I remember one day when my oldest was about five years old. He was watching an educational show on PBS while I was in a cleaning frenzy all around him. He said, “You know what your problem is Mommy? You don’t just sit down and watch a movie with your kids!” Wow, seriously? That stopped me in my tracks!

The reality for many moms is that life is busy. Whether you work outside the home or not, you definitely have a lot of work to do. One tactic I employed often, was to set a timer for 20 or 30 minutes at least once a day. I would give myself permission to ignore all of the other chores I needed to do and be totally present with my kids until that timer went off. This often meant playing on the floor, playing cards or a board game, or going outside. Then I would go back to cleaning or cooking dinner or whatever else I had to do.

Like many moms, I also had guilt if my kids spent too much time on screens. We made the dinner table an electronic free zone for the adults and the kids. Even though my husband worked long hours in the restaurant business, we tried to have family dinners almost every night. At bed time I would read to each child until he/she could read, and then we would buddy ready (take turns reading to each other.) I kept this up with all three of them through high school. It was incredibly rewarding to read together when they had to read specific books for school. It helped them get through some of the tough books and produced many many interesting conversations and shared moments.

Many of our customers say they enjoy getting Outside the Box Creation kids’ subscription boxes because they provide one built in way to set aside screen free quality time together every month. Watch a short video of one mom saying how this helps her. That is why each regular size kids’ box comes with enough supplies for two people. Each box also comes with a book to read together. We pride ourselves in putting everything you need (except water,) in the box, to make it easy for you to focus on your child! Many moms tell us that they’d like to do art projects with their kids but are overwhelmed at the idea of finding projects to do and then shopping for all of the supplies. One of our customers asked us to create a larger family sized box, so we did. This box comes with enough materials for four people. Most of our family size box customers sit down as a family every month to do the art projects!

When you purchase a subscription for your child, we’ll help you give mommy guilt the boot – try a subscription today!