Work at home. Great concept. Children. Tremendous blessings. Unfortunately, they are not like the old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial. Mixing peanut butter and chocolate is a great idea. Mixing children and work is a challenge.
Notice that I didn't call mixing work and children a bad idea. There is a lot to be said for your children being allowed to see what you do for a living. But if you are striving to be successful, interruptions can be devastating.
Take this blog entry, for example. I have an agenda of writing assignments I need to complete each and every day. I need to complete these assignments so that one day I may earn a decent living writing. Heck, I'd settle for simply earning a living no matter whether it be decent or paltry. Thus far, I have been interrupted by a potty training child in need of a bathroom, an eleven year old that fell and scraped up a knee real good and a minor squabble between two sisters. Not real conducive to the writing muse.
Children have a way of interrupting at the worst possible moment, or making unprofessional, loud sounds while you are on a business call and much more. What's more, they have no basis for understanding the havoc they wreak as they jostle about in loud voices and childish banter.
My solution is to work at the local public library. Unfortunately, my wife is out the next six days, and I have to tend to the children. I believe that I can work through this insane scenario only to find out that any creative muse I may have had disappears with the first squabble or child related issue.
The noise in our public libraries does not bother me. The voices are not those of my children and the issues are none of my business. I sit down, work, feel elated for my accomplishments and then go home. If I attempt to work at home, mistakes are prevalent and frustrations run high. I take a trip to the library and all is well with my world.
Children crave your attention. When you are working, you crave privacy. If you can work well at home with your children, more power to you. I can't do it. I suppose I am too in tune with thrum of my children's' lives to be able to tune them out. Besides, I like the shout of "Daddy!" whenever I walk through the door.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Begin the Day with Direction
Too many children start their days off in a wild, haphazard way that reeks of chaos and confusion. There is the struggle to wake up and then the frenzied rush to eat, get ready for school, catch the bus, etc. With all the rushing, everyone appears to be ADD. I propose everyone should start their day BDD - Begin the Day with Direction.
This does require pre-planned effort on the parents' part. I'm not trying to say that parents aren't making an effort, just that, all too often the effort is helter-skelter. A father can have a huge impact on the morning simply by being involved. Two adults can manage multiple children much more easily than one. Fathers tend to be able to get prompt responses from their children, which is a huge boost to the morning all by itself.
We have instituted a "cook" for the day amongst our three school-age children. The cook of the day is responsible for preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner (under adult supervision and teaching). This involves the child in the day and teaches a valuable life skill as well. We home school, so lunch is included as part of his/her responsibility. If your children take a bag lunch to school, another child could be selected to prepare lunches while breakfast is being cooked/prepared.
After school is out, each of my three school-age children is responsible for interacting with our two-year-old daughter for one hour each. This allows mom time to work and complete tasks she needs to accomplish. The rotation stays the same each day, running from oldest to youngest.
When the other two children are not watching their youngest sister, they have free time to play and work on special projects. After dinner, they also have reading time and computer time.
The key, though, is in the morning at the breakfast table. EVERYONE sits down together and the parents go over the day and all that is happening so the children know what to expect and when to expect it. With the busy schedule we all seem to keep these days, having more eyes and ears attentive to what needs to be done can be a huge boon to the day.
The communication is good for strengthening family bonds that may fall into non-use as our lives spin into all the insanities of keeping up with life. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, not only for nutritional reasons, but more importantly, for family bonding, communication and planning purposes.
Turn your youngsters into BDD children. Begin their day (and yours) with direction (a plan). Smiles are more frequent and confusion is diminished.
This does require pre-planned effort on the parents' part. I'm not trying to say that parents aren't making an effort, just that, all too often the effort is helter-skelter. A father can have a huge impact on the morning simply by being involved. Two adults can manage multiple children much more easily than one. Fathers tend to be able to get prompt responses from their children, which is a huge boost to the morning all by itself.
We have instituted a "cook" for the day amongst our three school-age children. The cook of the day is responsible for preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner (under adult supervision and teaching). This involves the child in the day and teaches a valuable life skill as well. We home school, so lunch is included as part of his/her responsibility. If your children take a bag lunch to school, another child could be selected to prepare lunches while breakfast is being cooked/prepared.
After school is out, each of my three school-age children is responsible for interacting with our two-year-old daughter for one hour each. This allows mom time to work and complete tasks she needs to accomplish. The rotation stays the same each day, running from oldest to youngest.
When the other two children are not watching their youngest sister, they have free time to play and work on special projects. After dinner, they also have reading time and computer time.
The key, though, is in the morning at the breakfast table. EVERYONE sits down together and the parents go over the day and all that is happening so the children know what to expect and when to expect it. With the busy schedule we all seem to keep these days, having more eyes and ears attentive to what needs to be done can be a huge boon to the day.
The communication is good for strengthening family bonds that may fall into non-use as our lives spin into all the insanities of keeping up with life. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, not only for nutritional reasons, but more importantly, for family bonding, communication and planning purposes.
Turn your youngsters into BDD children. Begin their day (and yours) with direction (a plan). Smiles are more frequent and confusion is diminished.
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