Two of my three children have been living at home since March. We’ve gotten lots of together time, some of it enjoyable and some slightly annoying (at least for them). My daughter and I have been doing some workouts together and my youngest son and I love a good hike in the woods. Because I’d rather read and do puzzles during this time, having workout partners has been a true blessing.
Last week my daughter and I were doing an online workout with some light weight lifting. It was relatively challenging and also kind of dull, at least at first. My daughter works out standing slightly in front of me so she can’t fully see what I’m doing when I work out. Suddenly, the instructor of this online class said that we were going to be doing some air guitar during the weight lifting break. My daughter assumed that I wasn’t going to do that so didn’t pay much attention to me.
A few minutes later she looked over to her mother in full air guitar mode. I’m sure she was initially horrified at the vision and yet to her credit, she joined right in. We both were laughing hysterically and took the opportunity to continue whenever the instructor called for an air guitar break. Later my daughter said, “I was so surprised that you did that. I thought you would have just ignored that part.” And truth be told, I almost did.
We so often don’t do something because we are embarrassed or lacking in energy, but life is too short not to go a little crazy. #joy #happiness #parenting Click To TweetI have frequently felt tired, discouraged, hopeless, and sad during this time of COVID. I miss my live yoga classes. I miss walking around cities that I traveled to for work. I’m often not a bit excited to work out in my basement, even when it is with my daughter. I miss my pre-COVID life and lifestyle. And yet, getting this time with my daughter is such a true blessing. Staying healthy together is both fun and motivating most of the time.
So why did I dive into full air guitar mode? Because I could. Because life is too short not to go a little crazy. Because we so often don’t do something because we are embarrassed or too lacking in energy to do so. Yet playing the air guitar with my daughter in the basement of our house during COVID was one of the more joyful moments of my life. How often will I have the chance to go a little crazy with her? How soon before she moves back out into her adult life to probably not live with us again?
How often do we get to play the air guitar full-out with our children? I wanted to show my daughter that I’m still here, I’m still having fun, I’m still able to make a complete fool of myself and be okay with it. And I’m still here for her. It was about twenty minutes worth of craziness and I hope those twenty minutes are a few that she and I won’t forget anytime soon.
Love,
Lisa Kaplin Psy. D. PCC