My kid told me that I can’t be apart of our family any more. It wasn’t said out of anger, frustration, or sadness. His reason was simple – I don’t spend enough time reading and in our family we read a lot.
Ugh. Talk about a gut punch.
Since my kiddos were little, my husband and I have surrounded them with reading materials. Pictures books, novels, comics, cook books, scripts, self-help books, and magazines filled our shelves, nightstands, and backpacks. We read to them until they were able to read to themselves and now they devour books at a shocking pace. They almost never leave the house without a book or two (a requirement for any drive over 10 minutes to reduce the backseat bickering) and can frequently be found at lunch or recess reading instead of running around.
I am extremely proud to be raising such avid readers, but I am also jealous.
Jealous that their lives are not filled with adult responsibilities and they can go on amazing adventures and learn about intriguing and fun characters. Jealous that they don’t yet have their own devices and social media accounts that they feel like they need to check. I can’t seem to step away from my phone and its choir of notifications long enough to read a few chapters of a novel.
While I am washing dishes, folding laundry, and checking Facebook my daughter is becoming Harriet the Spy. While I am organizing the house and seeing the latest on Instagram, my “baby” {he’s 7 and will always be my baby} is reading and rereading the entire Dog Man series. While I am restlessly sleeping my oldest is off to Hogwarts memorizing spells, lore, and vividly imagining receiving his Hogwarts letter in March on his 11th birthday.
It’s shameful and embarrassing that I preach literacy and the importance of reading to my kids and here I am not leading by example.
In January I set a goal of reading 1 book a month – which should not be a hard task – but here we are in the 4th quarter of the year and I might have completed 2 books. I make sure that my kids have access to any and all books they want by taking them to multiple libraries and always getting at least something from their school book fairs, but I never make reading as much of a priority for myself.
They say that it takes 21 days to make something a habit so starting now I am going to build in 30 minutes of reading time each day. Can you help me get started? What are you reading right now?
