Fort Clubhouse

As parents there some things we do for our children and wonder why we’re doing it the whole time. Like why in the heck am I making myself a nervous, tired, miserable wreck for this?

Most typically it’s with birthday parties. Especially for younger kids. We spend hundreds of dollars and hours planning and preparing extravagant parties for our one and two year olds, for what? They are most definitely not going to remember the party. They don’t care what the decorations look like, and I can guarantee that they don’t care how the cake looks as long as it has sugar in. Speaking of cake; they are just going to take their dirty little fingers and completely destroy that picture perfect cake that you just spent so much time preparing. 

Fort Clubhouse in progress

Our household is experiencing a similar time-consuming situation lately. We have decided to build a clubhouse for our kids. But not just any clubhouse, the coolest most awesomest clubhouse ever. It’s equipped with a rock climbing wall, slide, sandbox, windows, ladders, a platform on the roof for extra play, and of course it’ll be painted to perfection. We have put all these hours and dollars of work and craftsmen ship into this perfect clubhouse. And do you know what is going to happen to it? They’re gonna destroy it! That’s what. They’re gonna climb and bounce and throw and scratch and whether the dang thing until it’s hardly standing anymore. And that’s what we expect because they’re kids. Destruction is what they do. 

But my question through all of this is WHY?? Why do we put so much work, time, and money into things that we know good and well our children will destroy?

Is it for the few moments of sheer joy we see in their eyes when they discover their prize? Is it for the heart-melting joy we get from their precious giggles? Or is it the heart flutters we get when they say “I love you.”? 

Hours and dollars spent for just a brief ten seconds of happiness…that has got to be the very definition of parenting