No doubt about it. Parenting is serious business. When you signed up for the job of "parent," you committed to being someone's Mom or Dad for 18 years and beyond.
And what they forgot to tell you when you signed up for the job of parent is that the training period is indefinite. Regardless of your child's age and stage, there will always be times when you feel like a rank amateur and when you question whether you have the patience and stamina to finish this 18-year marathon.
And then there are the tough times — and the really tough times. At times like that, it's easy for the problem to take over the family. You wake up one day and realize that the fun has been zapped out of family life.
So how do you get it back?
Aim for spontaneous fun. I'm not talking about expensive outings or day-long extravaganzas that can be more stressful than fun. I'm talking about gathering up the gang and heading outdoors to fly a kite or to paint your own mural on sheets of newspaper on the sidewalk; going to the library to rent videos or audiobooks (and to refresh everyone's library book collection, of course); inviting the neighbors over for some sort of wacky, themed party; and inventing your own board games.
Planned fun is also a good thing. By this I mean family reunions and other special events that you know about weeks or months in advance. Spontaneous fun is more so due to the element of surprise. You're able to respond to everyone's mood, seize a chunk of available time, and make fun happen for your family out of the blue.
So no matter what challenges you're facing in your family right now, try to remind yourself that family life doesn't have to be serious business 24/7. That's a lesson we parents need to learn and relearn on a regular basis, for the sake of ourselves and our kids.
Now over to you. Provide your comments below.
- What's your recipe for spontaneous fun? If you have some photos to share that relate to this topic, you may want to post them at http://www.flickr.com/groups/yahooparenting/
- Do you think our generation of parents takes parenting too seriously?
- How can we find the balance between serious and too serious?


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