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After The Fireworks: Managing Kids' Expectations Once The Big Show Ends.

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As it turns out, all of my kids now love fireworks. Even the littlest seemed mesmerized, gazing up at the heavens in awe.

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All the colors and the excitement and the reckless abandon, egged on by ice cream and big cousins, turned a regular weekday into The Best Day Ever.

And I watched their eyes get heavy at bedtime, and they fell asleep fast, and my intuition whispered “they’re going to expect more of this tomorrow.”

More of the extraordinary. More of the intensity of running wild and free. More fireworks.

So how can we possibly look at the calendar’s next page and plan a day filled with just as much thrill as today?

Friends, let me share my little secret:

We don’t.

(Womp. Womp.)

I know we can already hear that whiny, disapproval in our kids’ disappointed voices, but unless we’re at Disney or we’re made of money, the likelihood of recreating that same high tomorrow is just not there.

And you know what? That’s okay.

The good news is — our kids really don’t need the fireworks to still have The Best Day Ever.

My boys have proclaimed more best days this summer than I can keep track.

And we’re a single-income family on a budget.

And we’re not going to camps or on summer trips.

But we are baking in the kitchen together and splashing with the water-hose in the backyard. We’re eating ice pops and making s’mores. We’re playing tickle monster and taking field trips to parks and the library and packing a picnic lunch.

We’re putting the phones down and listening to each other and reading together and even watching their favorite TV shows. Together.

And that is the challenge and the solution to facing the descent down the mountain: making time each day to be present and affirm it is our kiddos who make the day special. Not where we go or what we see and do.

So, each day, I want to be intentional in putting aside my own schedule and To-Do’s for a designated period and focus on how I can use whatever time and resources we have to show my kiddos they are important and valuable and shine bright like those lights in the sky.

That is what they’ll remember most.

So, maybe my kids can’t expect another big day like today to happen again tomorrow, but they can expect to be nurtured and valued and loved.

I’m finding it’s the love in the details that matters the most, friends. And that’s true any day of the week.

(Mommys15Minutes, Jaclyn Warren)

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