You are not slowing down with your kids enough.

Both you and the kids need to be slowed down.

This gets more and more important every year considering how our culture evolves. Everything about how we as a society interact with the world is faster, more shallow, overproduced, overconsumed, and overconnected.

Kids today are assaulted by short-form videos, low noise to signal streaming content, superficial entertainment, and shallow remakes of everything that’s already been made.

Adults are too absorbed in work, always on stimulants, lack sleep, and are mostly anxious.

As a Pagan father, you need to be the opposite of all that.

If you don’t want your kids to follow herds and devolve as humans, slow them down. The past gave us many great men that grew up so great because things were slower and more profound. You need to give their spirit a chance to grow, and less stimulation will help with that.

You need slower activities and you need less activities. It’s counter-intuitive, I know. You need more mindfulness and intentionality.

When you are with kids, this is already it.

Understand that when you are doing something together that already is life. It’s their only childhood.

You’re not waiting for anything. You’re not between things. You are not taking them from school to extra-curriculars. You are there with your kids, living life.

The fact that kids remember absolutely unexpected fragments forever only proves my point. What you talk about going up the stairs, standing in a line at a store, doing the dishes – it’s all your time with them.

The best part is kids are naturally slow and profound. All you need to do is adopt their pace.

Kids are absolutely happy just hanging out by a river in a park with you and throwing sticks in it.

One stick.

One more.

A different stick.

Now a leaf.

You start getting impatient.

“Hey those are great sticks and they fall nicely, you think you’ve thrown enough?”

Another splash. He just thought of something new and looks for a stick shaped differently.

“Hey you wanna go get ice-cream?”

Sure he does! But did you have to? Did he ask for it?

He was literally experiencing life as it is. Being in places and doing things. You want to numb them with sugar the moment they start dreaming or innovating just because you are used to stimulating yourself. They don’t need that yet!

Let them be slow. They are doing most of the things for the first time, so let them understand everything about each activity and enjoy it.

Stop making it all about the next thing on your list.

Slow down.