The Family Trip Out

With the hectic life that the children, Flyfour and I lead, I shouldn't have been surprised that when I looked recently at how much time the children and I had spent together without the added distraction of computer games and TV, I realised that it was pitifully small and I needed to rectify that.

So I told the children that we were going out and the plan was we were to have a fun evening together.

And then I took them to Ikea.

Now Ikea, might not sound like a brilliant place to take two children, but our family loves this Swedish store. Not just because of the Meatballs, but because we love wandering round the room sets, peering into cupboards and pretending that they are part of our home.

We helped an elderly couple out as soon as we entered the store, they were trying to sign up for an Ikea Family card and were looking a little lost, so I helped them create an account and taught them to use the touch screen monitors. They were really grateful, and it was a lovely way to start an Ikea friendship! We saw them in various places around the store a few times that evening, and they quite enjoyed joining in with our game of pretending the different room sets were our home and they had come to visit.

Eventually, we made our way to the restaurant, where the children decided what they were going to have to eat and drink. As it was a special treat, they both had a slice of cake after their meatballs and I may have accidentally had two mugs of Hot Chocolate and a small slice of cake!

We sat in a booth and were able to talk together, which is one of the things I love most about my children.We talked about school and friends and Church and politics and books we were reading.

We talked about dreams and ambitions and about clothes we liked and different things we wanted to buy. We talked about plans for the year and our goals and about changes we wanted to make as a family.

Then as we were almost finished with our drinks and meals we mucked about with Snapchat filters and the children posted selfies to their Instagram accounts.

By the time we got back home, there was still time for the children to play on the consoles with their friends. Instead, they decided to play together and play nicely too, no arguing, no fussing and a lot of sharing and caring going on.

It was bliss.

I'm going to try to remember to take time out of our schedules for a bit of unscheduled fun. I know that we already have plenty of time to talk and to be together, but the unpressured unscheduled time we had sauntering around Ikea, just seemed to refresh us and allow us the time to just be our natural selves.