I've been thinking a lot lately about how I am spending my time; and honestly I am not happy with the answer. I am wasting precious moments I could be spending engaged with my kids in a craft, a project, a recipe, a game, a book, a Bible verse or story or helping with homework. I could be investing this time in their interests and ultimately their futures.
I love technology and think it's amazing that we can keep in touch with people at any second of the day and in so many different ways; but this can be dangerous. Mom's (and Dad's), I'm sure you can relate to this: how many times have your kids said your name and you don't even look up but automatically say "just a second" because you are too intent on checking Facebook on your phone? Or they ask you for help on their homework and you say "hold on" because you are texting someone the details of your day? When did keeping informed about the outside world every-other-breathing-second become more important then being there for our kids when they so desperately need our attention (especially at such a young age)? Our kids pick up and learn from every one of our actions.
So, what is it that you want to be teaching your children? What do you want to input into their hearts and minds that will eventually come out in their actions as they grow up? For me, I want my kids to know how important family is; and I think they already do (thankfully). I want them to know they are much more important then when my phone is dinging. I want them to know that I want to spend time with them. I want them to learn that investing in others and leading people to Christ is much more important then how popular you are. I want them to know that real relationships take time and energy; that they are hard yet so rewarding.
So how do we implement these values into our children's everyday lives? We evaluate where we as parents are struggling, failing or maybe even drowning. We pinpoint what we can scale back or maybe even get rid of all together. It's different for everyone. Some might spend too much time on Facebook, texting, emailing (or their phone's in general) a game they are trying to beat, a set of books they can't put down, slaving themselves at the gym for that perfect body, putting in overtime at work to get to the top instead of going home and having dinner with your family, investing more time in growing your business then spending time with your kids on the weekends, putting all your extra time and energy towards that personal record, that really in the end, is just a title. Any area in your life that exceeds time spent with God or with your family, could use some cutting back.
With all this said; I've decided to deactivate my Facebook account and also scale back on my photography marketing. Obviously, Facebook just takes up time-too much of it. Photography on the other hand is exhausting. Starting a business in a new area is going to take time; that's a given. But when marketing and worrying about branding, trying to find new client's and always searching for new ideas becomes more of a focus then spending those after-school hours with my kids, then it's a problem. I'm not saying I'm straight up ignoring my children, not feeding them or changing diapers, but there are definitely times where I am on the computer working on photography related things when I could instead just shut the laptop, hang out with the kids and let the business worry for itself. I am not completely shutting down the business. I still want to gain new clients, learn more about my camera, and keep the business growing, but I am going to scale it back a bit. I'm not going to waste time worrying about when my next client will come along, or how I can gain new "likes" on my page. I'm not going to constantly be trying to come up with ideas or ways to "get my name out there". There are enough people now that know I have a business, and can pass along the word for me. I am still going to keep my photography business page and remain active on it; but I'm not going to worry about my admin stats and post a photo to my page "just because it's been a few days". I want to spend all this extra time investing in my children who are our future. I want them to be secure in the fact that they are more important then any job title I hold, or any comment I receive on Facebook.
I don't know if you are struggling with this as well, and if you are then I encourage you to take a look at what you are spending most of your time on. If you find that more time is spent on a certain area of your life then with your children/family, then you need to ask yourself how you can cut back to make more room and time for the more important things. After all, your children are our future. What we teach them today will affect how they react tomorrow (or years from now). All these other things that seem important now, really aren't. We can't take our phones with us when we die, we can't have a Facebook account in Heaven, we aren't going to be worried about having the biggest most booming business when we are dead, and being popular won't even exist because our eyes will be fixed upon Jesus. But, our children's actions and relationships will live on after we are gone. So spend time focusing on them and what/who God wants them to become. After all, this is our greatest calling as a parent.
*On a side note; I am not saying it's bad to a Facebook account or to have a business and a family. If you can balance both, then more power to ya! I however have lots of time in the future (God willing) to spend on this business, so for right now, I am putting more focus on my kids (and future kids as we are trying to adopt:)
Like I said, I am not closing up shop. I am still booking sessions and working on growing as a photographer, I am just scaling back the time I spend on the business and putting forth more time towards my children.
If you want/need to get a hold of me, my email is suzychapstick1@gmail.com. You can email me and I can send you my phone number as well, I also LOVE to get snail mail :) I'll also be keeping up with my blog; so be sure to "follow" it, and you can also follow on Instagram; username: suzychapstick1
~Susan
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