Are We Terrible Parents If We Don’t Take the Kids to the Pumpkin Patch?

Jamie and I often joke that we are perfect for each other because neither of us knows how to properly relax. We are planners by nature and enjoy scheduling everything down to the minute so that we can maximize our days and juggle a bunch of things. Our personalities simply jive this way.

The problem with this lies in that humans actually do need to relax sometimes (image that!) Relaxing is biblical, for crying out loud (referencing the Sabbath). 🙂 We find that even when we stay home to “relax”, we end up piddling around tidying up, working on various hobbies, etc. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this per se, except for that physical rest really and truly is necessary sometimes.

Well, by Saturday, we were physically and mentally out of gas. We knew without a shadow of a doubt that we needed to take a least half a day to just veg out.

One small issue: Saturday was family pumpkin patch outing day! We have two phenomenal pumpkin patches within 45ish minutes of us, and we have not had one single day this entire month where all four of us could take an afternoon to enjoy the pumpkin patch activities with the girls. (We were at the Alabama football game one weekend, then Europe the next two weekends, then Jamie had two Army Reserve weekends back to back).

So Saturday was it, regardless of the heavily overcast forecast.

So Saturday came, and I was up and out by 7:30 a.m. to run a few miles with my dad. I came home to my family devouring “spooky face” pancakes (homemade by Jamie), which was the cutest. Jamie was on cloud nine finally enjoying a quiet Saturday morning with his girls.

We then started talking about when we needed to head out to the pumpkin patch, but neither of us had any interest whatsoever in going. All we wanted was an afternoon at home with our girls to just plain chill out.

“But we have to go, right? They will absolutely love it. They’re the perfect ages! Who doesn’t take their kids to the pumpkin patch in the fall?” These were all of the things I was saying out loud trying to convince myself that we needed to go.

And finally Jamie looked at me and said “The kids just got to go to Europe, Erica. I don’t think they’re hurting for fun in their lives. I think it’s okay if we don’t go.”

Mic drop. I literally let our the biggest sigh of relief because he was so right, so we high-fived and agree that “parent guilt” is stupid, and that our girls will be just fine if we don’t go this year (in fact, Hadley already went with her class, and Sadie had no clue what we were talking about to begin with.)

So the three of them continued to stay in pajamas while I cleaned up a bit, feeling much lighter that we didn’t have to make a big to-do that day with driving 45ish minutes to the pumpkin patch. It obviously would have been a total blast, but not when you’re running on empty! We just cannot do it all, and sometimes we need to be reminded of it.

After I cleaned up, I did go out once again for about two hours with my mom to a local craft-type show at the girls’ school. One of my best friends had a booth, so we wanted to go see her and place an order. We did a good bit of shopping before going our separate ways.

And then from about 12-6pm, Jamie and I did nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing. Zilch. We sat on the couch together, watched many games of football (Alabama had a by-week), and did a lot of laughing about what bums we were. The sink was full of dishes, our bed was covered in a mountain of clean clothes that needed to be put away, but we were happy as clams resting.

We picked our 2019 family vacation spot, so I spent hours on my laptop beside Jamie pouring over potential lodging spots. I love doing this kind of stuff.

Around 3 p.m. I got up to whip together pizza dough, let it rise a couple hours, and then enlisted help from the girls to make the best homemade pepperoni pizza (recipe coming Wednesday by many requests! lol). Next, around 6:45 we walked a few houses down to hang with a few families at a neighbor’s house.

The kids are all between 2-5, so they had a ball, and we adults had a ball.

We dragged ourselves back home at 10 p.m. (the latest the kids have probably stayed up ever – ha!) and crashed hard. All of us!

I think it’s funny how a few weeks ago, I made a comment about how enjoying Lucerne, Switzerland with my family was legit the best day ever. Then yesterday I laid around on my couch with Jamie in Madison, Alabama for hours on end and also called it the best day ever. Balance is a good thing. Sometimes it takes the big trips to enjoy the lazy days, and sometimes it takes the lazy, “boring” days to really enjoy the madness of travel. All in how you look at things. 🙂

Whew, that was some good old-school style rambling! Thanks for hanging on!

Hope your Monday has kicked off on the right foot! See ya back here tomorrow. 🙂 xo

PS: How to Mow the Grass When Your Husband is Away in 57 Easy Steps and Just a Mom Trying Her Best Over Here