These are the “good old days.”

Today. Right now.

When my son wakes me up in the middle of the night because he had a bad dream about a dinosaur chasing him. That is part of the “good old days.”

When my other son has a nervous breakdown because I gave him the green cup instead of the red cup. That is part of the “good old days.”

When my daughter hides out of sight to poop in her diaper instead of the potty. That is part of the “good old days.”

In the moment, it’s really hard to remember that. Kids are amazing creatures. They can make you feel a depth of love that you’ve never experienced, and the height of frustration you’ve never reached.

All within 2 minutes.

But my wife and I remind ourselves all the time, that despite all of that. No. BECAUSE of all of that, we are living in the “good old days” right now.

And, I have a feeling, when our kids are all out of diapers and all in school, those will be the good old days too. And when they start driving, those will be the “good old days.” And when they go off to college, guess what….the “good old days.”

Each stage will be an important part of the “good old days.” But only if we are intentional about making it that way.

That’s the crazy part about life, right? We spend so much time reminiscing about the “good old days” and daydreaming about the future. What about right now? Today? This minute?

What am I doing right now to make this moment meaningful?

I want my kids to learn how to enjoy the moment. Relish in reality. Soak in their surroundings. And, Lord knows, I’m still learning how to do that too.

And I’m really bad at it. It’s so hard when I’m thinking about the next trip, the next call, the next project. I realize I need to force myself to slow down, and enjoy the now…especially at home.

So, here are a few things we try to do to live in the moment, and maybe they will help you too.

Dinner Together

This is not a revolutionary idea, but this one tactic will have transformative results on the development of your kids and your family. The benefits of this have been well-documented by places like the American College of Pediatricians to Psychology Today to the Journal of Adolescent Health. Seriously, look it up. We do our very best to have a sit down meal for dinner as many nights of the week as we can. Granted, it doesn’t happen every night, but we do our best.

Dinner Questions

I try to be very intentional with our dinner conversation. Otherwise, we will be done in 12 minutes, and the point of sitting down together will be lost. Two main questions we ask:

What was the best part of your day?

What was the worst part of your day?

Simple, yet it’s amazing to hear what mattered, good and bad, to each of our kid’s each day. Their answers provide a powerful insight into their different personalities, and they help us pause and reflect on what kinds of experiences our kids are having at each stage of their lives. Spoiler alert, David’s best part almost always has to do with food…

Pinch Ourselves Moments

What I mean here is that every now and then, Eden and I will remind each other about what exactly we’re experiencing. It’s like we zoom out for a high level view of what we are living each day. Often time it starts with, “Can you believe we have these three kids?” Reflecting on that generally puts things back into perspective very quickly. It can be about the kids, about our jobs, about our family, or whatever area of our lives that we want to treasure in that moment.

Journaling

This one is really challenging in the current season of life, but I do my best to simply write down all that’s going on in life every few months. That’s pretty much how this blog was started. Maybe someday it will be more frequent, but the point is to get your thoughts out on paper, literally or virtually, so you can reflect on it later in life to remember the good and the bad. Journaling is like creating a monument with your words.

These are just a few ideas that help us make sure we are intentional about each day having meaningful experiences. Because, after all, these are the “good old days.” And if we are intentional, then the “good old days” will last well into the future too.

#daddylessons