It’s the end of another school break and our family is suffering from a serious case of the end-of-holiday blues. Past experience with this illness tells us it’s treatable, even curable. Yet, for a little while longer, we want to wallow in this funk. Yes, I realize this could seem grossly indulgent. Ah, but, then I remember those unscheduled days. At nighttime, lunchboxes weren’t sitting upright on the kitchen island waiting to be filled with peanut butter sandwiches and juice boxes for the next day’s school lunch. The refrigerator calendar was devoid of afternoon activities. And, perhaps most importantly, there was no homework. No searching for shoeboxes to create a Trojan horse. No scrambling to find a brown paper bag to convert into an authentic Seminole Indian tee-pee with unauthentic rubber bands and super glue. Oh, and no fourth-grade word math problems I didn’t understand.
Just knowing the children had free time was a vicarious liberation for me. They could slumber a bit longer without repeated calls to the breakfast table. They could build forts out of blankets and read books for the pure joy of reading without worrying about passing a school test on it. For a brief hiatus, our regular world stopped and we liked it. Several years ago, trend spotter Faith Popcorn labeled this popular sentiment as “cocooning” which must have been the result of her spending some leisurely time in nubby socks with a cup of coffee reading every single section of the newspaper.
During the break, the kids and I decided to see how long we could stay in bed in our pajamas. Idle minds got the best of us. We left messages on my husband’s office phone mail impersonating our dog. We said she was holding us hostage for more treats and called several times throughout the day, laughing at the thought of our playful enterprise. Hubby played right along and surprised us with stopping by the house and bringing a “ransom” to our kidnapper in the form of beefy cheese dog bites.
Even the mundane chores were doable. I actually got ahead of the laundry pile so my family didn’t have to resort to using beach towels at bath time.
All this reminds me what a gift retreating can be, albeit if it’s in the form of a school break, a day off from work, or just an extra hour in bed. Of course, the trick is to remember this and find ways to integrate these moments into our daily lives, which is particularly difficult when we have to get off the dream bus and punch our ticket back to reality. While there is always time for creativity and spontaneity, it still takes personal diligence and a conscientious promise to reserve time for some good old-fashioned cocooning. As a start, I’m going to mark in big red letters “Cocoon Time” on the family daily calendar.
In recapping our time off together, I asked the kiddos what their favorite time was during the break. My daughter laughed and said, “Leaving kidnapping messages from our dog on daddy’s phone.” My son responded saying, “Just relaxing and doing some serious cuddling.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
