By Simon Ambit
With the busy demands that can be placed upon our daily routines, it can be quite easy for time to slip right past us. We may lose track of it, try to speed it up, or slow it down, even if only for just a small moment. Yet, it continues its steady march onward. With all the demands upon our time, my wife and I have decided to schedule individual time for each of us to spend with our children. We call this one-on-one time. It is simply an hour or so each month that we take one of the children by ourselves and spend some time with just that one child.
It gives us a chance to provide that one child our undivided attention and make them king or queen of the moment. We get to talk openly about successes and struggles they are having and share in their stories as we create little memories with them.
Most recently, I had the opportunity to take my youngest boy on a one-on-one. We chose to visit the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum in Price. We had a great time reading the kiosks, listening to the audio tours and admiring the displays as we walked through history and time.
My son found particular interest in the saber-toothed cat. There were a couple of intriguing displays, which featured the long-toothed predators; one of which showed the large cat leaping onto the back of a Glyptodon. There was also another that showed an up-close, full-body skeleton of the monstrous cat walking confidently through the sand, proudly displaying its large canine saber teeth.
We read the placards, which described the huge cat as a “specialized hunter of large herbivores such as mammoths, camels and bison.” Learning that this cat once roamed the Utah area made the cat come to life in the visions of my son’s young mind! It was entertaining to see his excitement and imagination unite with fact and evidence to create a legend in the heart and memory. Tiny and simple moments like this are an inspiration and a blessing to me as a dad.
In the social circles of the world, there can be much that our young ones find confusing, scary and pressuring. Let us help alleviate as many of those burdens as we can by being a lighthouse to our children, a source of refuge that they can turn to in times of their life storms. It may be a simple hug or high five. It may be an answer to their questions or even just a listening ear. Share a meal, play a game, ask about their day and listen to their reply. Life is good, take time to share it with the next generation.
“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a child.” – Forest Witcraft
