Yes, there’s a lot to do. You have to clean up that mess. You have to get them to school. You have to shop for this weekend’s birthday party. You have a permission slip to return. You have soccer signups to fill out. You have to get back to relatives about that visit. You have to schedule a haircut.

And a lot of these things have to happen soon. This is the urgency of parenting—those things you have to do because they’re happening right now, because you don’t want to miss out, because you’re being hounded by them.

But we also know—famously from the so-called Eisenhower Matrix—that what’s urgent is often not what’s important. While we’re worrying about paperwork and weekend plans, it’s worth considering, what are we missing?

We are missing our children’s actual childhood, of course. We are missing this present moment. We are also, as we focus on this day-to-day to do list, missing the bigger priorities we should actually be worried about. Are we preparing them for the future? Are we letting them know we’re proud of them no matter what? Are we showing them how to be a functioning member of society? Are we forgetting about our own ticking clocks, our own dreams, our own needs?

The point is: It can be very easy to get tunnel vision. It can be easy, in the overwhelm of day-to-day parenting, to forget that this is an endeavor in which success—and responsibility—is measured in the course of years. If there is anything to be anxious or concerned about, it is almost certainly not something that’s happening this weekend. It’s the bigger picture that we should keep our eyes on, because that’s what we have to get right.

P.S. One of the phrases we often try to remember in order to prepare our kids for the real world and the future is “Luctor et Emergo”—Latin for “I struggle and overcome.” As we’ve said before, kids’ lives should be good, not easy. If we let them figure some things out on their own, if they can learn to be resilient and resourceful, we know we’ve done our job getting them on the path to being a functioning member of society and (hopefully) a good human being.

This is exactly why we created our Luctor et Emergo medallion. It’s a physical reminder you can carry or display to help you remember to take the time to build the confidence and character your kids will need to overcome life’s challenges. Get yours from the Daily Dad store—for yourself or to give to another parent—today!