Attention

Today Olivia sat in a chair with a coloring book and a box of crayons and colored for two straight hours.  I know it was two hours because we were at stake conference, and it marked the first time in my career as a mom that I have sat through ANY church meeting, let alone a two hour one, where I was not disturbed even once by one of my kids.

And guess what?

It was boring.

Turns out I would rather be disturbed.   I am USED to being disturbed.  I function better with a healthy dose of distraction going on.  What in the world are you supposed to do in church meetings if you aren't digging in the bag for crayons or telling somebody to shut up?  I was forced to sit still  today, and pretend to be paying attention for the entire time! And I didn't like it.   I never really appreciated, until today, the amount of boring meeting time I have been spared over the past 22 years, thanks to my kids.

It's not just at church either.  I can't sit still and listen to anything anymore for more than 4 minutes before I want to jump out of my seat.  Whenever I go to a movie, I have to get an aisle seat.  I tell people it's because of my weak bladder, but really I just need an easy exit for when the urge to bolt hits me. I have a hard time paying attention in a one-on-one conversation. Give me three on one, that's what I'm used to.

And now that my kids have  completely decimated my attention span, they are going to all grow up, develop long attention spans  and move to France  and leave me with nobody to be distracted by.  I thought that old saying was just a joke- about insanity being inherited from your kids.  But now that it's too late for me, I know it's true.