I’m working on my blog early this morning – instead of running, which is what I usually do at 5 a.m.  And I have that panicky feeling that I’m not going to be able to get everything done because of this delay.  Normally, I’ve already run more than a third of my daily miles by now, but this morning, I have only managed a third of my daily coffee consumption.

The reason for my change in routine is that my kids have a friend spending the night.  Now, usually this is not enough to deter me from getting up to run.  This week is different, however, because it is Finals week, so I felt like I had to do my part and not get on my screechy treadmill that sits directly below their bedroom.  I didn’t want their friend, who is not accustomed to the sound of incessant pounding mixed with grinding machinery first thing in the morning, to do poorly on his Final because he couldn’t get enough sleep in the Johnson Fun House.  But it was difficult to resist running.  I stared longingly at my treadmill for several minutes while I made my coffee, wondering if I could somehow make it quieter.  But McGuyver, I’m not.  And it’s just too dark at 5 a.m. to run outside alone.

So I’m sitting on the couch, typing, my right foot tapping, fueled by a triple espresso that I had no business drinking since I’m doing nothing but SITTING!  And it got me to thinking about the ways we affect our kids lives with our running, for good and bad.  I mean, do other kids have to ask their mother to shower before she picks them up at school?  I thought of all the ways my kids have been affected by my running:

Positives:

 

1.  They have gotten to travel all over the world for races, seeing places we probably would have never gone if we were merely tourists.

2.  There is a lot of junk food in our house all the time because I am always hungry.  No need to worry about sneaking cookies in this house.  You only need to be concerned that all the new cookies will be gone before you get home from school.

3.  Laundry gets done every day.  I sweat a lot.  And I run a lot.  This leads to a lot of wet clothes every day.  Ick.

4.  I’m pretty open to letting them do, and be, whatever they want in life because…well, when you run around in circles for years, what can you say?  No pressure to conform in this family.

5.  My kids have full control of the television remote.  I am way too tired to watch t.v., so it is all their’s.  No bickering over whether we are going to watch Dance Moms or South Park.  I’m probably already asleep.

 

Negatives:

 

1.  I rarely look like Donna Reed.  In fact, I usually look like I work in a swamp wrestling gators.  This has caused my kids to ask me, on more than one occasion, “Hey Mom, can you pick us up on Orange Grove Street?”

Me:  “But that’s 3 blocks from the school.”

Them:  “Exactly.”

2.  While on the above-mentioned trips across the globe, my kids have been forced to crew for me during 24 Hour races.  Sleeping with a running shoes as a pillow in and aid station tent isn’t exactly travelling in luxury.

3.  If we can walk, we never drive.  My kids call them “forced death marches” because I like to WALK.  No strolling.  Luckily, we live someplace where you can walk nearly everywhere – and we do.  And they hate it.

4.  Many of our “fun” vacations involve me figuring out how to get my miles in.  This has forced me to resort to being dropped off at the edge of a town and running through it while my husband gets gas and food, and then picked up on the other side – much to the extreme embarrassment of my teenagers.

5.  And finally, the one that started me thinking about this: I run on my treadmill every morning right under their bedroom.  They have become very heavy sleepers because of it.  I look at it as preparing them for dorm life later on.  Hmmm… I guess that makes it a positive 🙂

 

How do your kids feel about your running?

 

Happy Running!

Tagged as: embarrassing kids, kids, travel