And It Stretches Out Before Me. . . .
Evenings are just not my forte. I get to this point of the day (it's about 7:30 pm around here and I'm waiting for the kids to finish getting ready for bed), and everything starts to feel gloomy, hard, pointless and discouraging. Sounds like fun, right? I've been up since 4:30 am so I know it's just that I'm worn out and I need to get some rest, but in the meantime, I need to make it through the family bedtime stuff.
Bedtime. After mulling it over for several days, I finally figured out why I was dreading the start of school again. Besides the fact that July just seems too early no matter what, I have three nightmare points of the day that either don't exist or are manageable when the kids are not in school: the early morning rush, the homework battle, and bedtime. Summer mornings were a dream. I got up early, left Terence and all the kids still asleep, and headed out for a heart-pumping workout at the gym. By the time I got home, they were just crawling out of bed and no one was fighting it. They were happy to get up. Not so anymore.
The first day of school went so badly that Terence and I brainstormed some ways to make it better, and so far they are helping. I wake M up no later than 5:30 so she has plenty of time to wash her hair (apparently that takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour). Then I make a batch of muffins since warm muffins seems to be one of the few things that J will eat before school. Then I wake up J and B and cajole them (or threaten them) into their clothes and drag them outside to walk down the street and back. That seems to wake them up enough to eat. Then I have to wake up and dress K and S, neither of whom are thrilled about it.
By the time I've herded everyone into the car, I'm frazzled and frustrated. Less so than before we tweaked the morning routine but still irritated and stressed.
Homework. . . well, it hasn't been bad so far. But I know what it was like last year and I know the battles are just over the horizon. Enough said about that.
As for bedtime, nothing helps me here. I'm exhausted. I have a bunch of nightowls who don't want to wind down even though they have been up since the crack of dawn. And everything seems so gloomy. When it was still summer break, I put S down for the night and just went to bed. I left them all up and figured either they'd put themselves to bed when they got tired or Terence would deal with it. It saved my sanity a bit. But I just can't do that on a school night.
Only 179 more school days to go.
Bedtime. After mulling it over for several days, I finally figured out why I was dreading the start of school again. Besides the fact that July just seems too early no matter what, I have three nightmare points of the day that either don't exist or are manageable when the kids are not in school: the early morning rush, the homework battle, and bedtime. Summer mornings were a dream. I got up early, left Terence and all the kids still asleep, and headed out for a heart-pumping workout at the gym. By the time I got home, they were just crawling out of bed and no one was fighting it. They were happy to get up. Not so anymore.
The first day of school went so badly that Terence and I brainstormed some ways to make it better, and so far they are helping. I wake M up no later than 5:30 so she has plenty of time to wash her hair (apparently that takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour). Then I make a batch of muffins since warm muffins seems to be one of the few things that J will eat before school. Then I wake up J and B and cajole them (or threaten them) into their clothes and drag them outside to walk down the street and back. That seems to wake them up enough to eat. Then I have to wake up and dress K and S, neither of whom are thrilled about it.
By the time I've herded everyone into the car, I'm frazzled and frustrated. Less so than before we tweaked the morning routine but still irritated and stressed.
Homework. . . well, it hasn't been bad so far. But I know what it was like last year and I know the battles are just over the horizon. Enough said about that.
As for bedtime, nothing helps me here. I'm exhausted. I have a bunch of nightowls who don't want to wind down even though they have been up since the crack of dawn. And everything seems so gloomy. When it was still summer break, I put S down for the night and just went to bed. I left them all up and figured either they'd put themselves to bed when they got tired or Terence would deal with it. It saved my sanity a bit. But I just can't do that on a school night.
Only 179 more school days to go.
Comments
you are a tough cookie. I would cry if I had your schedule