Let’s Stay Home Today!

I have two kids that I think are pretty terrific. I’m really glad God gave them to us. And it’s really interesting to see the personalities He has given them.

If we have stuff going on that takes us away from home more than a couple of days in a row, my kids are ready-more than ready-to stay home.

“We’re going somewhere again?”

“Do we have to go?”

“Why can’t we stay home?”

No surprise really, since they are the offspring of two introverted homebodies.

Throw in some late nights and lack of sleep and they’re really done!

This past week was a busy one. Busy compared to our normal anyhow. I’m sure there are some go-getters that would laugh at our schedule, wondering why we called it busy! Funny thing is, on Monday I thought, “Well, we don’t have much happening this week.” One thing leads to another, life happens, and there we were climbing into our car for this, that, and the other.

Most of our plans involved friends of my kiddos and a good time was had by all. But, they just get ready to be home and do their thing. Friday evening they were shot. I was tired too, but I had to laugh a little when I looked at them. You could tell they were exhausted and ready for a normal day. If there is such a thing as normal!

I’m pretty sure they inherit a lot of this from their mother. When she has been out and about a lot, she really likes to be home all day with no reason to leave the house. She definitely likes her down time. She can have her moments when she wants to get out of the house and go do something, but these moments really don’t occur as often as they used to. Having toddlers brings with it some I-want-to-get-out-and-do-something moments. Since my kiddos mother’s toddlers have grown well away from toddlerdom, she no longer has that particular syndrome. Every now and then a cook’s brain can become completely frazzled from trying to put together another menu. This can cause a Let’s-go-out-for-supper kind of moment. Appointments for a massage or a pedicure are good motivations to get out for sure. Especially since these appointments don’t happen very many times a year.

Another reason I think they inherited this homebody trait from their mother has to do with the fact that she didn’t always like to go places when she was growing up. She hated going to someone’s house for dinner and having to sit at a table with a bunch of kids she didn’t know. She wanted to sit with her mother. She went through a stage in her life when she wouldn’t go stay all night at a friend’s house or even go spend an afternoon at a friends. She just wanted to be home. With her mother. Her mother had some “What am I ever going to do with this child?” moments. But it all came out even I guess. A Kansas boy came along and captured this stay-at-home girl’s heart and she ended up moving nine hundred miles away from home to start a new home with her farmer man.

And they had a couple kiddos and they did inherit the trait of liking home. Anytime mom is going to town and dad is around, working at the farm, they always opt to stay home. We went and watched Air Racers recently, at the Cosmosphere. They liked it, but it wouldn’t have bothered them a bit to stay home. And if they would have been the ones choosing, we probably wouldn’t be able to say that we have watched Air Racers. It was a cool film, by the way.

Most of the time we are glad that our kids like to be home. Home is a great place to be. And we do spend quite a bit of time here. I don’t think I would like it if my kids were always begging to go somewhere or asking constantly to have friends over. I suppose if that’s the way they were wired, I would be used to it.

It is hard to always know what to do. We are glad they are content to be home. We like having them here. We like being home a lot ourselves! The hard part is when they receive an invitation and they want to turn it down and I know that the person inviting them is going to be disappointed. Other people can’t see our schedule and may not realize we’re ready for some home time. Extrovert personalities can’t understand it. They simply can’t, because they love people and doing things. People and personalities fascinate me. Everyone is so unique. We are used to our own comfort zones and we can’t always comprehend someone else’s. We think or say things like “I can’t imagine being gone so much!” or “I can’t imagine not getting out more.” Even though we can’t always understand, I am glad for diversity! It would be boring if everyone was the same temperament or personality. There would be things that would never get done if we were all the same!

What kind of personalities do you have in your home? Begging to stay home or asking to go somewhere?! Or somewhere in between?