It is August, y’all. The origin of the very term: August Mom. I’m getting by. I’m getting through.
“But are you ENJOYING your children???? You will MISS this time very soon, you know. I wish I could have this time back with MY children.”
Oh yea? Then take mine. Go ahead, I dare you.
Four weeks left until school starts. One is signed up for camp for one blissful week, the other is doing ‘chore camp’ here at home. We don’t even mind because he gets paid and I get to say my house is a mediocre-level of clean without having to do it myself. Win/Win.
A few weeks ago we cut our kids’ screen time more than in half. I was a lazy mom, i’ll go ahead and say it. I allowed screens to take the place of imagination, productivity, and physical activity in the name of convenience, sanity, and zen. I’m still a lazy mom, but it’s for their own benefit. It’s not my job to entertain you. I did that for the first 4-5 years of your life. Now you get to operate that big brain and all those limbs on your own. Get to it.
I have noticed a difference and we are not turning back. We have slowly weaned them back to a more reasonable amount of time from the 1-2hr/day limit we started with. Now I will go over the 1-2 hours for car rides, doc appointments, errands.
They still moan, but not as much. They still badger about when they get their time, but not as often. You know what they do? They make giant messes all over the house with toys that we all trip over and step on. They use 20% of the toys at their disposal instead of whining they don’t know what to do with 100% of them. They sleep better – and this is the biggest benefit, hands down. My ADHD kid has never been an easy go-to-sleeper. Lately he is conked out after tucking him in. Once in a while he’ll pop back up for anxiety reasons, but more often than ever in his life, he gets to sleep and stays there. The other benefit is playing outside more. We live in the pacific north west and sometimes it feels like we have two seasons: Raining all the time and too damn hot. (a/c is not a readily accessible convenience here so summers can be tough for weeks at a time) The outside play in the hot evenings has definitely contributed to the better sleep and I’m not complaining about that.
They still bicker with each other. They still fight over toys. The house is just a constant shifting mess, but we are five weeks and counting until school.
We seem to have scrapped the one small family vacation we dared utter out loud we wanted to do, so I’ve had to improvise with museum trips and zoo trips. Naturally this is the best behaved any of us are for the day. Having witnesses is a highly undervalued parenting tool, in my opinion. Of course all hell breaks loose for us all in the gift shops, but beggars cant be choosers.
We are now off to the dentist. Summers: Recreation and Medical Appointment catch-up. Fun fun fun!
Sarcasmica 