Schedules and The SAHM

When I switched gears and became a SAHM/WAHM, I had to learn to train my children to a set schedule during the day. To be honest, the training has switched gears and they’ve had to train me. I was used to 3am alarms and driving miles in the darkness. Now, I’m woken several times a night because of juice requests and avoiding potty accidents. If I tried to get up at 3am now, I’d be a mommy zombie…that’s right, a Mombie.

I’ve been home for a bit now. Things have progressed to a “sort of” schedule and I think we have it down finally.

They seem pretty well-adjusted, right?

Here’s a typical day in my robot house:

7:00- The baby wakes and crawls out of bed. She smacks me on the face with her juice cup and we proceed to the kitchen where I attempt scrambled eggs and cereal. Sometimes just cereal. I make coffee. I ice my nose.

7:30-I get about 20 minutes of news before the boy wakes up asking for one of the following: To watch YouTube (A privilege he must earn), to play video games (another privilege he must earn) or to drag his Legos out to the living room to play for 5 minutes while his little sister scatters them around to every nook and cranny of the house.

7:45- I’m getting on their occupied butts as they play Legos to finish their now cold and/or soggy breakfast.

8:00- I’m on my 4th cup of warmed up coffee. I’m dumping half eaten cereal and swatting away requests for ice cream and cookies.

8:30- The girl gets interested in destroying her room while I work on my son’s homeschooling activities. I stop every 10 minutes to make him do jumping jacks to keep him focused. I ignore all the crashing happening in my daughter’s room.

9:15- I cut up fruit and they both gobble it up like they have been starved in a Turkish prison. We get ready to head outdoors to be maniacs in front of the neighbors.

10:30- Someone’s hurt and I’m in the bathroom trying to convince one of them that band-aids are good and not the work of the devil.

10:45- We, meaning I, clean the living room and all the Legos. They proceed to fight over a piece of plastic food in the play kitchen.

11:30- I put on a video and lay out pillows and blankets for “movie time”. They get to eat lunch this way. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, they cuddle together. I will Instagram the photos. I also blog during this time.

12:30pm- I get the baby ready for bed. The boy gets his earned video game time. I reheat more coffee so I don’t conk out with my daughter.

12:35pm- I wake up from rocking my daughter. I put her in the crib and go get my son to work on his letters and numbers again. He fights me and it takes about 10 minutes to convince him that I own the video games he likes playing. He resumes his seat at the desk.

1:15pm- I start laundry or figure out what I’m making for dinner. My son begs for more game time but conforms to playing blocks while I finish up meal planning.

1:45pm- If the weather is nice, my son and I head back outside for my playtime. I’m starving because I’ve forgotten to eat…again.

2:30pm- The baby is up and is trying the manipulate me into giving her candy. I make snack. My son conks out.

3:00pm- My daughter starts screaming over something I won’t let her do. My son wakes up and asks for his video game. I build a play fort and they forget everything else.

3:30pm- I sneak away while they play knights and princesses and attempt to finish a blog post. I watch my clothes get dragged from the master bedroom. I hear them singing “Part Of That World” and listen to the Ariel and Eric dialogue.

4:30pm- My husband walks through the door. I open a bottle of wine and fix dinner.

Some days aren’t exactly like this but it’s pretty darn close.