Don’t panic: create a vision board!

Don’t panic: create a vision board!

Who knew that a rainy day, a bunch of cranky kids and a stack of magazines could lead to a great adventure? Before I knew it, pages were turning, snippets of paper were flying, and I had insightful glimpses of young hearts and souls. I’ve also learned that empty glue sticks, when placed in the wrong hands, can sail through the air at a fairly rapid pace.

I first encountered vision panels while attending a mothers wine therapy session that was masquerading as a “craft party.”

In case you are unfamiliar with this important operation, creating a vision board involves cutting out pictures and words from magazines and pasting them into a collage to represent your innermost dreams and goals. You are then forced to hang this mishmash on the wall, where it will make you feel guilty about accomplishing them (because otherwise, you will have wasted an entire afternoon when you could have watched reality TV).

Typical topics for discussion at such events fall under the category “How to survive parenting while remaining somewhat emotionally stable”. Nowadays we have added worry and stress, for example, the disruption of healthy living as we know it due to COVID-19. On the bright side, we can now complain and complain to other parents in a Zoom online meeting without wearing pants.

Meanwhile, although I have made fun of visualization boards in the past (the phrase “malarkey new age” comes to mind), I now recommend them as a fun and therapeutic way to spend an afternoon with them. the children. At the very least, it could momentarily curb some of the high calorie cooking in the house and also make it difficult to put carbohydrates in your mouth while using a pair of scissors.

After taking out the necessary supplies, the fun begins. Except when the topic of hopes and dreams is brought up, you might find some scary things going on in your children’s heads. Using their free time to clean the house uninvited will not be one of them. Instead, the result of this fun and relaxing activity may require a parent to post an official list of things your kids will never be allowed to do even during a pandemic, like acquiring a pet snake. Of course, they can dream about it, but it won’t happen under my corpse.

But thinking about the future, whether it’s a few hours or a few months, can distract young people from missing things like playing board games with friends or performing in school plays. In fact, creating vision boards can also be a fun way to overcome worries, brainstorm safe alternative activities, or plan small steps towards future goals. It can also put them in a better mood.

Then it’s back to real life in the midst of a pandemic, desperate to keep parenting wit, humor, and patience.

So before you clean up the glorious mess on the table and floor, be sure to throw an empty glue stick behind your shoulder for good luck. In these difficult times, it certainly couldn’t hurt.

Pam J. Hecht is a writer, teacher, and mother of two (but not necessarily in that order). Contact her at pamjh8@gmail.com or pamjhecht.com.