It is easy to fret over in the little things like whether spending another ten dollars on carnival games at the fair is wasteful. Should we drive home the the two hours or spend the two hundred dollars on a hotel room for the experience? These opportunities are with us just with us but for a moment. Our daughter will be doing her own thing in just a matter of time.
There were so many moments of the day that I was concerned we were spending too much.
Were we being wasteful? Were we spoiling the child?
Perhaps we were but I tried to stuff it down and just focus on the experience. The time I may never have again. The time that is not guaranteed to us tomorrow. I don’t want to come to the end of my life regretting I didn’t buy a silly stuffed pig for my daughter or booked that hotel room where we all cuddled up in bed and watched TV.
Since we had our daughter there has always been someone or something to tell you how to raise a kid. How to discipline them. How to make sure they don’t get spoiled or become selfish little shits. But not many of those people or books tell you that you really shouldn’t overthink all of this. See the experience and opportunity as it is, just that, an opportunity to make a memory that you both get to hold forever.
My Bank Account is on a Rollercoaster
Money has always come and gone in our lives. I recall the time when we had only $27 left in our bank account and we did not know how we were going to pay our mortgage. Come to think of it I do not have any idea how we didn’t lose our house. We have been on the opposite end of that spectrum as well. Money is always ebbing and flowing in our lives. There are seasons of plenty and seasons of tightening the belt. If you find yourself in the season of plenty take advantage of the moments when you can. Save some for the future, but don’t let the future dictate what you can experience right now.
When I am sitting in my retirement home in the mountains in the future, (haha, not likely) am I going to wish I would have taken more of those quick trips? Or am I going to reflect on the memories of them? These are the days I do not get back. I am not going to worry about whether buying her one more stuffed animal will spoil her. It is not. She will be fine. As long there is a balance here and there.