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Do you take time to work, play and rest every day? Do your children? Do you know what defines each?
If you need some gentle reminders, here they are:
Work is self explanatory for adults, and for kids that would be homework and chores and projects, and for teenagers that may mean actual working as well.
Play is whatever gives you enjoyment. For adults, that could be exercise (that could also be in the work category for some), going on the computer, talking on the phone with friends or watching mindless TV. For kids, that may mean sports, going outside and playing in the neighborhood on nice days, playing imaginary games, board games, or dancing around.
Rest may mean napping during the day for 20 minutes, or in your car during lunch breaks to refuel during the day. For kids it may mean taking quiet time after school, watching television before homework and activities start, or getting to bed earlier and reading to wind down from the day.
Individually, we all have different ideas of work, play and rest, but the point is to make sure we are partaking in each EVERY day for good mental and physical health. It is possible and it truly doesn't take much; however, in order to be healthy in mind, body and spirit, this means that we are doing something each day that stimulates us intellectually, makes us feel good physically and that we are resting so as to relieve tension and stress build-up.
In a recent article, the Boston Globe reported that teenagers as a whole are dealing with issues of exhaustion as the trend is to text throughout the night, literally being on-call for friends if they are summoned. For teens who make themselves available to this non-stop activity during the time they should be sleeping, they "don't enter the deep sleep of Stage 4 REM sleep, crucial to moving experiences and lessons of the day from short-term into long-term memory- in other words, completing the learning process." Seemingly what is supposed to be play for this population becomes work - and way too much of it. This is an overload to one's system and one that throws the work, play and rest formula completely out of balance.
As parents, are we on top of this? Do we help to balance this or are we, too, on our computers and phones too much which is sending a message to our kids that the chatter truly never stops?
We need to be sure that our kids are getting enough work, play and rest each day in order to live fully and feel whole. We need to be sure we are also doing this for ourselves. Whatever constitutes work, play and rest for you, be sure you are not getting too much of one and not enough of another. It's your day, your schedule. The way you choose to design it really is up to you.
Happy April, Happy Spring!
Jill | 
