I’ve spent the better part of the morning, and early afternoon, trying to decide what I should write about today. Every time I sit down to the computer I find myself quickly distracted by the likes of Facebook or the story of the six-year-old boy in the balloon. I can’t focus, and even though I am the only one in the room presently (which is a miracle in and of itself), thoughts are chaos in my head, and I have no motivation to sort them out. I guess the only excuse I have is that it’s Thursday, and Thursdays are notorious for meltdowns, grouchy family dynamics and slow moving neural synapses (or in other words, my brain is mush).
Why Thursdays, you may wonder? Because Wednesdays for the Slater brood are packed from the minute our eyes pop open in the morning until bedtime (which for the kids is, at least, two hours after they normally drift off to la, la land). In addition to the various extra-curricular involvements we have on Wednesdays, we also have church activities in the evening. We usually don’t get home until after 9pm, and rush to get our kids upstairs and in bed as quickly as possible. As Joel and I drift off to sleep, we mentally prepare ourselves for the next morning. There will be tears, there will be whining, and there will be a temper-tantrum of some sort. This is what we get to look forward to on Thursdays!
Since Sydney started preschool – three years ago – we have had this challenge. Fortunately, I’ve had time to come up with a few survival tips. They don’t guarantee a blissful and smooth post-Wednesday night morning. However, they do help Mommy and Daddy hold on to a portion of their sanity, and lessen the amount of battles we have to fight. So here are my tips, for those of you who may find yourselves in the same boat:
- Have outfits picked out before leaving the house Wednesday afternoon.
- Have lunches for Thursday packed before leaving the house Wednesday afternoon.
- Have all items needed for school, work, MomsConnect group prepared and set out before leaving the house Wednesday afternoon.
- Beds DO NOT need to be made, and rooms DO NOT need to be picked up on Thursday mornings. I have learned to let that one go and give the kids a day off.
- Mentally disengage and go brain dead when meltdowns ensue. This is a great tip for every day tantrums, but especially helpful on Thursday mornings.
- Thursday night is leftover night! Mommy doesn’t cook on Thursday, and if there are no leftovers, we do a sandwich night.
- Early, early, early bedtime on Thursday. We will go to great lengths, even sacrificing bath time, in order to make sure our little ones are in bed EARLY on Thursday nights. The benefit of this? Fridays are amazing!
- And lastly, prayer and coffee…and lots of both!
I know it’s not much, but like I mentioned earlier, it’s Thursday, and my brain is moving in slow motion. This is about as deep as I can get post-Wednesday night. Tomorrow is a new day, and perhaps I’ll be so fortunate as to squeeze something a little deeper out of this tired brain of mine over the weekend.
Until then, happy Thursday to you!
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What great ideas! They would have helped me about 7 years ago… at least now… my 10-year old handles it like a champ!
BTW Miss Prim of the Week made sure she got every privilege and advantage of the night… from handing out papers to being first in line to show and tell… to standing in front of the class and helping me teach. And she wasn’t too thrilled with me when I wrote down the memory verse just plain and simple. She protested that it needed flowers around it! But I held my ground
Too much fun!