As I sort through all the photos of my sister and niece's recent visit I keep spotting ones on a similar theme. My daughter and niece are both aged 12 and my son is 11. They work hard at school, are involved in various sports and after school activities, lead fairly busy lives and are all growing like topsy. By the end of a long hot school term my children were exhausted and whenever I quizzed them on what they wanted do during the school holidays they replied "nothing" or "sleep in" or "just muck around".
But given that my sister and niece had travelled all the way from New Zealand to visit us in a place they'd never been to before, "nothing" wasn't ever going to be an option. I had a list! Thankfully our children were eloquent yet reasonable in expressing their requirements, and as a result we adults settled on a sequence of big day/small day/big day/small day outings with the odd nothing day thrown in for the children.
In addition the children occasionally revolted and stole some rather gorgeous nothing moments on those big days. Some of these nothing moments are shown here. The photo above is of my niece relaxing at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Below are all three children recharging at the Urban Orchard in central Perth after spending the day at The Museum of Western Australia.
Here they are enjoying a scenic cruise down Mandurah's beautiful Peel Estuary.
I have to admit that I had to steal a quiet nothing day alone at home at one stage too while everyone else went kayaking. When I saw the photos that came back from their outing I felt like less of a wimp when I discovered that my sister had required a nothing moment that day too.
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