"Don't make your brief too long, dearest. The court will appreciate it much more if they don't grow weary over reading it. Many a good thing is spoiled by there being too much of it.” — Nelly Taft, First Lady of the United States
Some of you know that President Taft liked too much of a quite a few things. Nelly has a good point for all of us to consider, many a good thing IS spoiled by there being too much of it. Here are a few things I run across in organizing and parenting. Any of them resonate with you?
1. Choices: Choices are a wonderful parenting tool, but in my experience it can be overused and they certainly can’t solve all our problems. Choices don't make children behave, or stop them from having strong emotions or a melt down. Ease up on the choices you give your kids. Maybe even ease up on the choices you give yourselves. You will reduce decision fatigue and open yourself up to more solutions to your parenting problems.
2. Ideas: Generating new and fabulous ideas can be draining and lead us down too many paths. Then we can never get to where we actually want to go. Some ideas are better thrown back in the lake than added to an already full barrel of fish.
3. Caffeine: Tragically, we can have too much coffee (or tea, or diet coke, or chocolate).
4. Books: Ugh . . . this is such a hard one for people. You can have too many books. Whatever doesn't fit on our bookshelves (and I mean lined up neatly, not jammed in willy nilly) are too many books. The holding on to the book does not make us smarter, wiser or more accomplished. (I know you are outraged, but just let it sink in, we can talk more about books later.)
5. Social Engagements: Too much can really be too much. Do we have white space in our schedule? Is their time for magical, unplanned moments to occur? Do we wear down our relationships by rushing, nagging and making people do things they don't necessarily want to do? Experiment with some unscheduled time, or more time between things. When we are not in rush we might just talk nicer, our backs could feel better and we might enjoy our kids more. It’s worth a try!