As I scroll through my social media feeds these days, I am bombarded with pictures of adorable children eating delicious Fall apples, enjoying tractor rides on the farm and picking out the perfect pumpkin at the patch. These images are classic New England Fall weather pics. As I go for a run while my kids ride bikes with me at the park, we run/ride past numerous families who are dressed in similar outfits or color palettes, taking the perfect series of family pictures that they will forever cherish and later use on their holiday photo cards.
Not me. Not my family. Not this year.
We haven’t gone apple picking once. Haven’t been on one tractor ride or jumped in one pile of leaves. What?! How can that be?! Well, the truth is, it just is. I’m not some anti-Fall fun devil woman who doesn’t believe in a good time. I love having fun with my kiddos. But this year, eh…it just didn’t happen.
Maybe it was because the weather was more like Summer than Fall? Maybe my kids are outgrowing it? Maybe I just couldn’t squeeze in one more thing between taekwondo, piano, OT and actual down time?Whatever it was, it didn’t happen this year.
Or did it…? We have been eating a lot of apples that we got from this cute little place down the street from us called Stop n’ Shop. We really DID pick pumpkins (who cares if they were from a huge basket in the parking lot of Trader Joe’s?!). Plus, I take a hundred pictures of my kids every day on my phone, so can’t I just use those in our Christmas card?
We also have plenty of dogs being walked in our neighborhood day and night. My kids love to pet them. Isn’t that like going to a farm? And, I still have an apple pie in my downstairs freezer that I bought from the PTA pie sale last year. Let’s heat that bad boy up and call it a lovely Fall day!
I hope you can laugh along with me, dear reader, and see that just because you may not match up to your friends highlight reel on Facebook, it doesn’t mean that you or your kids are missing out.
Take on what you can handle and no more. That’s a good rule of thumb for parenting sanity. If going apple picking truly fills your bucket, then go for it! “Apple picking” at the grocery store might be more your speed. Good for you (and me)! As this holiday season is just getting started, this mama is inclined to keep it as chill as possible.