I have been following with interest the series on Money Saving Mom about
how to establish a routine for your family. She has a lot of interesting
points, one of which is how when you have a routine, you can make time for
things that are important. When you find yourself with five or ten extra
minutes at some point in your day, you can spend them on something you care
about, instead of wondering what to do. I like that idea.
Staying at home full time with my son has been challenging, and we have made a
routine for our day basically just to stay sane. He is a precocious kid –
and active and rowdy and gets bored easily. We need to have a plan when
we go through our day, otherwise we are a little nuts by five
o’clock. We are probably a little nuts by then anyway.
Here is our routine, in a nutshell.
6:30 wake up – we get dressed, have
breakfast and usually go outside to play for a while.
7:30 my husband leaves for work and I try
to avoid turning on the TV to occupy the kiddo. It is really hard,
because it’s too early to go anywhere but we don’t often have anything to do
around the house.
9:00 we go out and do something until nap
time. It can be hard to figure out what this thing is. Usually, we
hit a park or a friend’s house, or we host people over at our house. One
of our favorite things to do is the Zilker Science and Nature Center. I like going to place that
can occupy us for long periods of time, something more than just a simple
playground somewhere. It is absolutely essential for our afternoon that
we get out of the house and do something somewhere else.
12:00 we come home and the boy takes a
nap. I eat lunch, check email, try to earn some Swagbucks so that I can
get diapers for free next time we need them. It works, and is also
probably a colossal waste of time.
2:00 naptime is usually over, time for the
kiddo to have lunch. Sometimes he helps me do some chores or tasks.
Lately, in the afternoons, I have been trying to figure out some simple crafts
and DIY things. I am not crafty, but I’m not the biggest moron, either,
sometimes I can figure things out. Today, I made Larabars out of dates
and apples. Finn goes through phases where all he wants to eat are Larabars,
but he skunked me out today by insisting on eating plain old dates out of the
box. If I knew you would eat dates, I would not be pulverizing them into
bars, little one.
4:00 ok, by now we are usually going
crazy. I am trying to straighten up the house again, do the dishes, clean
up from crafty hour, and the boy is trying to get more TV time by
whining. We often end up outside again, even though it is the heat of
day.
4:30 I start looking over dinner options,
see if I have to get anything started. If I have managed to get any
laundry done, I’m putting it away now.
5:30 I start dinner in earnest. My
husband comes home sometime around here and takes over with the kid.
6:30 dinner
7:30 bathtime, followed by stories and bed
for the little one.
8:00 while we wait for him to fall asleep,
my husband and I read and do quiet things. If there is dessert in the
house, we eat it.
8:30 we get to watch TV. I try really
hard to stay awake past 9pm.
I can see, looking at my routine, that there’s a lot of space for us to be more
productive, especially in the afternoons. But that is the hardest part of
the day – it’s hot outside, and I’m usually wiped out. I believe
traditionally, this was the time of day when my mom used to make a second pot
of coffee and whip herself into a housewiferly frenzy. I could do
that. I suppose I could also make time to try to teach my son something
useful … every time we try to do something where we sit down and work on
something, like coloring, he tries to eat it. Maybe I am doing something
wrong for him to still be like that, I don’t know.
No comments:
Post a Comment