Joyous Noise

During the summer months, when you live in such an ultimate destination spot, like San Diego, you can be assured you will have non-stop visitors. Bobby and I are both from the East Coast, which means even more guests during the summer. So between, family and friends, its continuously a full house. Our views are superb and our house has truly become such the collective “must see.”

It’s not just the vacationers that visit us, but there are so many business conferences that are held here throughout the year that bring in even more unexpected guests. Currently we are having our friends from NYU visit us. We love reminiscing about our fun times in NYC. Bobby and I welcome our friends and family with open arms all of the time and I couldn’t help but reflect on all the “joyous noise” that echoes through our home during the summer nights.

Most of the time, you can look around and notice the kids outnumber the adults. They seem to get together like little rascals do and conspire to inject more delightful chaos to our get togethers. Even in the midst of it all we uphold our schedules, diet and emotional availability for the little ones. Parenting has become the first priority no matter who is visiting or what is going on. Like my friends told me parenting is 24/7.

It becomes a joyous dance for the littles when they are given the right amount of structure with bouts of freedom; you actually would be surprised at how they too become inspired. Last night, they took a moment to join us parents and demand our attention. They wrote us notes, drew us pictures and gave us a hand-picked bouquet of flowers. It was their way of expressing their appreciation for how much we do for them. It was a touching and surprising moment for all of us. The ooohhhhs and ahhhhhhhs from all the parents followed their sweet speech.

In the end, you would be surprised to know that your kids appreciate all the structure you actually do provide for them. They actually are paying attention and love that they come first. Having routines actually help kids learn to take charge of their own activities. And who knew that every once in while we get to really see their gratitude for it all. So go ahead and entertain all you want, just keep those kids as the number one priority and you too will experience “joyous noise” from both the adults and the little ones.