Timeless Lessons, Courtesy of The Skally Boys! #3

This month we’re concluding our series with Lesson #3: BHBD (Be Home By Dark)

Somewhere along the way in this great game of life, we seem to have lost track of what it truly means to be a kid; that precious time to be “free”. Is anyone else out there feeling like this? Like time is flying by, and along the way, we’re getting a little “cray cray” ubering our kiddos from one event to the next while watching and guiding them every step of the way?

Back in our day, we’d be off in the parks and streets playing streetball of any kind, kick-the-can, and performing an incredibly planned ding-dong ditch. We know today ding dong ditch could never work, Ring Doorbells put an end to that! But whatever happened to the good old days when Mom and Dad would simply say, be home by dark! They didn’t seem to worry too much about us and we sure learned a lot about the game of life all on our own. 

Sure, we skinned our knees from time to time, encountered bullies and even played an occasional prank or two. But it was all pretty innocent fun and part of learning and growing with little to no supervision. We figured it out and our parents didn't worry too much. One day Matt came home needing stitches from a terrible bike accident. After a visit to the hospital, a 7-UP and some Tylenol, the very next day Mom told him to get out of the house, get back on the bike, and go play with some friends. What a great life lesson that was!

Today, our kiddos seem to have more virtual friends than real ones and would prefer watching TV or playing video games rather than running around the neighborhood and creating random games to play until dark. Is it because they’re so overscheduled and tired from all of the planned activities?

Well, this past summer, we made a pact as a family. We were not going to fall into the trap of FOMO (the fear of missing out) and overschedule the boys or ourselves. We also decided we were going to stop worrying… that the craziness we see and hear about in the news is by far the exception and not the rule. And finally, we didn’t care to know everything our kiddos were up to… our parents certainly didn't and that probably was a good thing for us. (Let’s face it, if they knew we were occasionally ding dong ditching some of our neighbors, they would have most certainly given us a spanking!)  

So this past summer, Cristy decided to casually start playing some golf. He didn’t even have any clubs and simply had a lot of fun just hacking around with some random clubs from the garage. In fact, he had so much fun that he fell in love with the game and tried out for the high school golf team. Who would have thought it, but he made the team! And many of you already know that Dominic went fishing all summer long and had the time of his life. 

So we guess the moral of this story is a friendly reminder that less is more. Less scheduled stuff and more free time for us to just be, well, free! 

We sure hope you enjoyed this series as much as we have had sharing it. It’s amazing what we can learn from our kiddos, isn’t it?!

Your friends,

Matt & Christina

Matt & Christina are Team Skally, top real estate agents in the Seattle Metro with expertise in luxury homes on the Eastside including Bellevue, Newcastle, Mercer Island, Renton and Issaquah. Their client testimonials say it all - they deliver exceptional service and record-breaking results. Recognized as top agents on social media by Property Sparks, Diamond Award winners for best client service, winners of 2023 Nextdoor Neighborhood Faves and regularly featured in online and print publications including Greet - Newcastle & Newport Hills Magazine. In addition to serving clients, Matt and Christina love family time with their two boys and two Goldendoodles as well as volunteering in the community.