Before summer began, most of my weekdays I spent the majority of the day with one child at a time. Chloe was in morning preschool, Carter in afternoon kindergarten, Audrey in school all day. After school I added a neighbor boy that I watched til dinnertime to the mix but it was only a few hours of having 4 kids to deal with.
So other than the week we went on vacation, our home has now become a whirlwind of noise, playing, tattling, messes, bickering, late bedtimes, "Mom! Mom! Mom!" etc,etc,etc.....and honestly I've felt so overwhelmed by the changes I almost started feeling down in the dumps. My life has been feeling completely out of control. At least out of MY control.
Now, please don't get me wrong....I love my children dearly and I am glad we have the opportunity to spend time together this summer. But not only am I {as the mom}adjusting to having everyone around, but the kids are readjusting to being together all.the.time. Bossy older sister, oppositional middle brother, and pesky little sister have been out in full force. So they are re-learning how to get along with each other and be kind and share space, toys and mom's attention...on a more regular basis . :) But there have been a lot of tears and time-outs along the way.
I finally feel like we are starting to get into a rhythm, knock on wood. One of the keys has been KEEPING BUSY with a variety of friends and activities. Another is to have some kind of expectations of the kids (well, that has been the key to MY sanity)....so the kids have a chore a day, are expected to clean up after themselves generally, and need to earn some of their screen time by reading and doing household tasks. That has been a learning process too, but surprisingly, they have taken to these expectations pretty easily!
Here's hoping we are on a better path and on to many fun adventures together....with as little tears and tantrums as possible!!
Our family on vacation :)
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