Organizing your day?

I'm glad to hear that someone else has wild indians running around their house!! I have had to rethink my strategy because it was definitely not working. We were bored silly too. So... I am trying to get back on a more time oriented schedule like the kids had when they were in school. I only started last week so I don't know how effective it is going to be yet. This is sort of what our day looks like:



My kids wake up early (6 am) so they know that they have to have all their chores done before they can turn on the television or the computer. Their rooms have to be cleaned (including making their beds, dishes put away from the dishwasher, dressed, the dog taken out etc. They then can watch tv (I'm awful I know) until I get up around 7 am. Usually they get their own breakfast too (cold cereal is a lifesaver!!!) I then send the kids outside while the weather is still cool. I give them squirt bottles, or chalk, or sand toys. Anything to keep them amused. We have a trampoline too which has been a major help in keeping them occupied. We have swimming lessons at 11 am , lunch at 12. Quiet time for the older kids and nap time for the younger ones from 1-3 pm. I let the older ones paint, play board games, color, read books or anything else quiet. It is from 3 on that I start to get in trouble. It is too hot to go outside and the kids are bored from being quiet for the past 2 hours. That's when a fieldtrip comes in occasionally. We go to the library, mall or a McDonald's playland for a drink. If it was cooler, we could go bike riding or to the park. Sometimes we go swimming, especially if Dad gets home early. We also have friends come over once in awhile to play or visa versa. Okay, I am just rambling here.... that's is just a general idea of what I have been trying to do. The reality is that it has only been a few weeks and my kids and I are going nuts! I hope there is something here that helps or at least ... misery loves company!!



Good luck. Robin

Oh Robin. We had such an AWFUL day today...the proof of that can be found in my multiple postings . It was just NUTS! Like they don't know that there is a such thing as rules or something!!!!



I think that mommys DESERVE some quiet time. I should be able to sit at the internet for an hour while they play a board game or watch their favorite show...or clean the kitchen while they play in the backyard. Is this UNREASONABLE? NO, I tell you...NO! Today, they absolutely demolished the house and I eventually just turned into a screaming, shrieking crazy woman that I am ashamed of Ashamed, I tell you I told them to clean their mess and instead, my son threw a block at his window and put a HOLE through it!!!!! My children were not like this before summer vacation....maybe they were and I just didn't notice it? They are good kids....loving kids....but they are WILD SCREAMING BANCHEES...and I said things today that I truly regret!



I told my 5 year old at LEAST 10 times today to pick up her crayons off of the floor that were scattered everywhere. Finally, I told her that if she wouldn't pick them up, I would sweep them up and throw them away...and I did, while she just sat and watched. Instead of being remorseful, she threw another crayon on the floor and said "here, you forgot the one I was using"



WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!



You must think I am horrible now...I hope you don't. I am just feeling so totally overwhelmed and isolated...and then I blow up and feel horrid about myself. I want to truly enjoy this summer, I really, really do!



Thanks for letting me get this off of my chest.



Kris, who is totally at the end of her rope!
The Medical Spouse Network

How do you have your day organized when you are staying at home. I am really struggling to maintain any sense of "control" around here...I am starting to think of backing a movement for 12 months of school !



I just can't get everyone to do what I want them to, and I am finding myself soooo bored! We do about an hour of "homework" a day, but other than that, it is just "free time" and my kids are running about like wild indians



Any suggestions on how to plan a day would be greatly, greatly appreciated!



Kris
The Medical Spouse Network

Kris,

We all have days like you had and I know I have said things (or screamed at them) that I completely regret. I would have been livid with the block going through the window! The crayon experience sounds just like something my 4 year old would do. Kids sure know how to push Mom's buttons!!!



I think the kids do misbehave more during the summer because they get off schedule and they are stuck the whole day with their siblings! Hang in there. Take a timeout for yourself when things get too bad. I lock myself in the bathroom! The other day I locked my kids all outside of the house in the backyard in110 degree weather! I couldn't stand the tattletaling and fighting any more. Dallin (20 months) had quite the week last week from coloring my white walls with a green crayon to opening a tube of toothpaste and squirting it all over the house while I was cleaning the crayon!



When I finally do get calmed down (even a day later), it has helped my guilt to apologize to the kids for yelling or saying things that I regret. I am hoping that I won't be doing that later today because it is Monday and it hasn't started very well. Tyler (4) climbed in bed with me last night and kicked me all night long. Then Dallin woke up screaming at 5 am and I put him in bed with me for about 30 minutes before deciding that I was CRAZY and put him back to bed where he screamed for another 30 minutes. The older kids have been yelling at each other all morning so... it is only 10 am and I feel like I have had a full day! Sigh ... Hope it gets better. Don't worry Kris, you are not the only one going through this. Hang in there. We just have to hope that the kids remember the good times more than they do the occasional bad days!

Robin

Robin,



Thanks for helping me to feel better. I talked to my mom last night and was telling her all of the things that I had said, and that the kids had said, and she laughed so hard that she couldn't even speak anymore Something about payback was muttered



We have these good days where it seems like things really just "click"...but we haven't actually had one of those since school got out! It's been almost 2 weeks. I think that I feel basically totally overwhelmed to have them all three around at one time. To make things worse, we have been having sporadic thunderstorms and I haven't been able to let them play out back....but it seems like even when they are playing out back, they are fighting and screaming at each other . I just really want to get control of the situation. I wonder how much of this is a bit of nervous energy before the big move? I am nervous myself, and I wonder if they are 1. picking up on that, or 2. nervous themselves? My oldest (Age 61/2) has been crying a lot at night about missing his friends/teachers.



Thanks for your support...it is good to know that I'm not the only mom going through this.



Kris

Aren't moms great?!!! I always feel tons better after talking to my mom and she usually laughs hysterically at my stories about the kids too. It puts things into perspective. We have a joke that if she gets a cardboard box in the mail with holes in it, it is most probably Tyler (my 4 year old little terror!) My mom, on the other hand has my 89 year old grandmother living with her. So she tells me that if I get a BIG cardboard box with holes in it, then it's most probably Nana! It is nice to be able to share our exasperating stories.



As far as your kids being nervous about the move... they probably are. Each child handles things so differently. My six year old (Zachary) is our sensitive one. We can always tell when the kids are feeling stress by him. He starts having night terrors, though I think he has about outgrown those. He also will have bad dreams and will break out with cold sores. My oldest holds it all in and gets very melancholy and my little Tyler is oblivious. He has no fear of anything! I'm quite jealous if truth be known! Anyway... you have so much going on as it is and having them off for the summer is difficult even without the move. My kids fought all day today and drove me absolutely bonkers. Sigh... Good luck!!! Take it one day at a time!

I posted a response to this yesterday....I don't know why it didn't show up!!!



My mom has been a lifesaver! We didn't always get along very well, but since I became a mother, we have become very close. She cared for her mother, who had alzheimers. My "babum" passed away almost two years ago. I think it is the thing that my mom did that I am the most proud of...I hope that I will be able to care for my mom like that when she is old.



We are having a tough coping day...all of us...We visited with some of our friends today and said our good-byes..Andrew and Amanda were both feeling upset and just looked devastated all day...but their behavior was so out-of-control and mischevious that I found myself really losing it when what I wanted was to be compassionate. I feel really lousy about how I handle things today...I am also sad that we are moving, and I am letting the stress of it all get me down. It is time for me to get a grip, so that I can be there for my kids.





RE: kids fighting...yesterday when we picked up thomas, they fought the whole way there and screamed the most amazing littany of "potty words" at each other.

Kris
The Medical Spouse Network

I usually lose track of the time of day by lunchtime and/or when the baby demands her next meal, so I'm not much help. I do have a great article that made me feel much better about losing it with my older one, who is quite the intense, attention-sucking child. I read it after I'd thrown a plate of pancakes across the kitchen after he'd insisted I make some for him then turned up his nose when they were ready. I felt awful for getting so mad, and make my best efforts not to, but sometimes it happens. Anyway, read this and feel understood:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/lamo/19...9lamo.html

this one's very funny too, http://www.salon.com/feature/199...ature.html



Kaaren

I do feel better...thanks for the articles....I am so relieved to find out that other moms have these kinds of days sometimes too....I felt so much more relieved that I decided to just "get over it" and go and have a nice time with the kids...



Where did you run across Salon Magazine? I might have to subscribe to it now



Kris
The Medical Spouse Network

That is such a big question now that I read all these postings!!



I have 1 little 20 month old monster of my own. Today he decided he didn't want his lunch so he took the bowl and dumped it upside down on the floor!!! Our nanny (Anne) and I decided that he must not be hungery (!!!) otherwise he would have eaten it. So I calmly walked over to him and asked him what was on the floor. He smiled and told me "Bowl". I said that it was a "no-no" to dump it on the floor. He repeated "no" in his cute little toddler voice. So I cleaned it up and said "All done". Then Ann and I finished our lunches while he sat there and got pissed off. He wanted "down" from his chair. But mommy and Anne got the last word by talking to one another and ignoring him.



If he is going to try and push the limits - I WILL win!!!! Bring it on baby!!!



So anyhow - I'm starting to think long and hard about that second one!!!