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 gregarious 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. The kid and I play outside for as long as we can, usually we water the garden or walk up to the corner to watch the buses. If we run out of steam, we watch a little tv and I try to do some writing. “Try” being the operative word.
8:30 I start preparing to leave the house. Maybe I get some laundry started, straighten up from breakfast, pack snacks and toys for the day. The boy usually needs a new diaper by now … and sometimes just changing him seems to take half an hour and all of my energy.
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. Usually we read some stories, play outside, he begs to watch more TV and I resist as long as possible. 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. We are working up to riding his bike so we can take a walk around the block.
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. Sometimes we go to the library or run some kind of errand very close to the house. Traffic is getting snarly at this time, so we don’t go far.
5:30 I start dinner in earnest. My husband comes home sometime around here and takes over with the kid. I check email and dink around online inbetween fixing dinner. It is when I really feel like having a beer.
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. If there isn’t, sometimes this is when I make my husband drive to Sonic to get me some ice cream. Mmm.
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 everything. Maybe I am doing something wrong for him to still be like that, I don’t know.
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