On A Deserted Island

It’s the age-old question: If you were stuck on a deserted island with any 4 people, dead or alive, who would you choose?  Brad Pitt?  Albert Einstein?  Anna Pavlova?  Abraham Lincoln?  Babe Ruth?  Mother Theresa?

DSC01902 For me, the answer is extremely easy: I’d choose hubby and our 3 children.  And I really, truly mean it.  Sure, I have my days when I dream of running away to a deserted island by myself but really, I would want my family there with me.

I mean, how cool would it be to be able to do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted without the social constraints and expectations of society?  Wouldn’t it be awesome to have unlimited time to spend together without having to fit within the schedule framework of school, work, store opening hours, etc.  What it would give you is total freedom.

Freedom to be together uninterrupted, to experience and learn about your world together, to teach your children what you want them to know, not what some bureaucrat says they should know.  They would get to learn by seeing, exploring, doing rather than sitting in a desk or staring at a workbook.

IMG_1070 They would be forced to create their own entertainment, to play with what they had and develop their own games.  I’m sure there would still be plenty of “I’m bored” moments as that’s just a part of growing up and they’d be fighting over the biggest coconut instead of mommy’s iPad but they’d be learning to share, work together and get along.

You could teach them to be the type of person you want them to be and what matters most to you.  But without the social constraints of right and wrong, what would be most important?  Would it matter if they swore?  Probably not (and being on a deserted island with hubby would give them plenty of opportunity to learn curse words!).  Would it matter if they wanted to run around wild and be loud?  Absolutely not.  So what would matter?  I would still expect them to be compassionate, respectful, loving and caring.

For me, this isn’t just some silly question with a hypothetical answer.  Sometimes this world just gets too overwhelming for me and the expectations are so extreme that it’s hard to keep my head in the game.  Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel and recede with my kids to a far away corner where we can just live and love each other uninterrupted and unbothered by the outside world.

I think as parents it’s so easy to get caught up in what other people expect of our children that we lose sight (or run out of time and energy) of what is really important to us and our families.  What really matters to me may not matter to you or to the guy sitting at the table next to us at a restaurant or to the school principal.  We each have our own set of ideals and I just wish I had the deserted island to raise my children the way I want to 100% of the time.

(I’ve also always thought it would be really awesome to be able to live a life where you slept when you were tired and ate when you were hungry instead of living on the 24-hour, every second scheduled clock!)

10 Comments

  1. Aubrey March 13, 2014
    • Melissa March 13, 2014
  2. Felicita Moncada March 13, 2014
    • Melissa March 13, 2014
  3. Newsy Parents March 13, 2014
    • Melissa March 14, 2014
  4. Heather March 13, 2014
    • Melissa March 14, 2014
    • Melissa March 14, 2014