All kids do better with a routine. Mine are in no way the exception. While they love staying up late to play with friends or when visiting family, they always go from excited and happy to hating the world and wanting to be asleep two hours ago at their normal bed time.
I'm trying to be a better mom and person. It's no secret that I don't like to clean and that my son is sometimes late to school or I'm late picking him up (never really late for either, but enough that I feel guilty about it). Being a better parent and trying to grow as a person when you are depressed 85% of the time is incredibly difficult.
Depression doesn't stop me from cuddling my kids or showering them with kisses. The only difference between "GET EVERYTHING DONE" mom and "I can't function as a human today" mom is the location of said cuddling and kisses. Hugs and kisses and I love yous happen all day no matter what my mood may be. It's the one thing that even if I'm not in the mood for, I force myself to do. This is my darkness, not my children's and they need to know that even though I can't get out of bed today and I'm tired and crying a lot, their mama still loves them and still needs their love in return. YAY for co-dependency!
Back to the routine part of this post.
Because of this wonderful age of technology, I am able to mostly keep our routine in check and get through it with very little effort on my part. Smart phones and the endless list of apps that help people (even people like me) is amazing. I have a tasks app that I have set up so our daily chores can be checked off. Once checked the chore moves to the next day (or the next week/month depending on what it is). The same with bills every month. So our daily routine of cleaning the house isn't as bad as it was before I started caring about this house.
O is 4.5 years old and is excited to help when asked (most of the time), and enjoys having his list of things that needs to be done every day (or every other day depending on the chore). He feels like such a big kid when it's time for him to do whatever it is he needs to be doing.
C is only 2.5 years old and can only really care about the things being asked of her for a short period of time. She's getting better at getting everything she needs to do done, but that doesn't mean that she is loving it the same way her brother is. But he's also been doing it longer and is use to it.
O is in Pre-k and so there really isn't homework outside of singing some songs and having him practice writing out his name. Besides going to school for three hours a day, he doesn't have much to worry about. The only thing that is hard is that his class starts at 12:30pm and trying to get him to help with housework at all after school is next to impossible. So trying to squeeze in all the things that I would like him to do before school is our only option, and that is just too overwhelming for him.
Our routine is pretty standard I would say, but I've also realized that my kids are starting to let me sleep in more and more because they can get away with more stuff.
7-7:30-wake up
8-8:30-breakfast
8:45-9-kids unload dishwasher and put everything (within reach) away
9-playing in rooms
9:30-9:45-picking up living room, sweeping kitchen and taking out the trash (O does this)
10-second breakfast (yep, they eat as often as hobbits)
10:30-bathe and get dressed for the day
11-outside playtime
11:45-O gets shoes on and makes sure that his teeth are brushed before going to school (C brushes her teeth as well)
12:12- leave to take O to school
1-lunch and tea for C
1:30-2 naptime for C
3-3:20-leave to get O
4-outside play and lots of singing
5-start dinner and turn on Netflix for kids
5:30-6-dinner
6:30-7-pajamas and brush teeth
7:15-story time (we're reading Harry Potter! I'm so excited!)
And they are usually out by 8pm.
It's nothing exciting or special, but it's what has kept me from going completely grey. Everything does not always happen within the time listed above but more or less this is what our day looks like.
O does take out the trash, but we have switched our kitchen garbage can to a smaller bathroom sized can. We use plastic shopping bags in it so all I have to do is tie it off and hand it to him. He walks it outside by himself and replaces it with a new bag. In a year this chore will become C's and O will graduate to vacuuming the carpet or sweeping the floor.
So that's it. There is our day. What do you have your kids do? Do they do chores at all?
No comments:
Post a Comment