Autumn has finally arrived, and in our family, we anticipate this season with great joy. We welcome cooler temperatures and repetitive fall activities. We stuff our faces with pumpkin-flavored everything and sit around bonfires in our Adirondack chairs with comfy flannel blankets for long periods of time. By the time Autumn arrives at our farm, we are internally cheering: BRING IT ON! And it lasts for seemingly two-and-a-half minutes, but oh, while it’s here! Our family is slowing down. We’re bundling up. We’re quieting our lives long enough to hear the fire crackle and pop. We are breathing new air and slower rhythms. We are appreciating the beauty of the fall foliage all around us.
As a mom, this is the time I feel like I can catch my breath from the mayhem of back-to-school activities. Our kids have a small break between sports, and suddenly, we’re sitting down at the dinner table again together more nights of the week. We trade in the on-the-go constancy for restful evenings at home.
I like to call this little window of time “breathing room.” The timeframe before we start the next sport is small, but we lean into this temporary lifestyle while we can, and I am reminded that just as nature cycles through change, our families benefit when we embrace rhythms of release, refreshment, and re-centering. Even the trees remind us that letting go is not only natural, but also necessary for new growth. We can draw so much direction as people (and as parents) from the change in this season.
Parenting in the fall carries its own kind of beauty. Every dropped leaf is proof that change is part of the story. Every shift in season reminds us that nothing stays forever, but that’s not something to fear. It’s something to lean into with hope. And every season we guide our children through, whether it’s busy or quiet, messy or calm, is another chance to model what renewal looks like: to show them that slowing down is worthwhile, that change can be good, and that letting go often makes room for something new.
Winter will be here before we know it, but for now, there is fall, and there are so many beautiful things to behold in this season.
-by Destini McPherson
