This lament isn’t uncommon among parents, and I’m always a tiny bit baffled by it. After all, we control the remote, right? Our kids can’t use it without our permission, overt or other.
Ten years ago, we removed the television from our family room area. We still don’t have one on the main floor of our house. Horrors, I know! We are crazy, Amish-like even, right?
Except, no. Our kids love American Idol and crack up over Simon’s outbursts. They watch football on weekends and see just about every stinking movie that’s made.
I don’t have a problem with watching TV. In fact, I enjoy it. (For the record, we have two.) But the reality is that TV takes time. It’s time my kids aren’t building Legos or playing outside or reading a book. It’s time I’m not reading a book, for that matter.
Parents ask me quite often how we manage without a daily diet of PBS and Nickelodeon. The answer is simple. Truly. My kids don’t know any different.
To find out more, and for tips on how to control your kids diet of television, see my post over at Midwest Parents – I’m there all week!
Newsflash: NOT a morning person. Repeat: Do not call here before 8:30 unless you are prepared to deal with the less-than-pleasant person on the other end of the line.
Oh sure, I’ve been up. For hours. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.
This sort of poor-early-morning temperament was fine way back in the San Francisco and Seattle days, when I was the only one at home and awake at that hour. (My sickeningly early-bird husband has always flown the coop long before I have, even in those days when my alarm screeched at 5:45AM. What on earth does he do so early? Yuck.) But now, I am joined by two of my boys, both of whom are off to school before the sun peeks over the horizon. Geesh.
Getting kids out the door, on time, and with needed materials, is a difficult proposition for most moms I know. Accomplishing those same things with an I’d-MUCH-rather-be-sleeping mindset is, well, almost impossible. So how do we do it? How do my kids manage to arrive at school with two shoes, homework, lunch, and a coat? Here’s what works for us:
Start the night before: lunch. This idea sounds so logical, doesn’t it? And yet, by the time we’ve finished all of the evening activities, eaten dinner, cleaned the kitchen and tucked the kids into bed, I barely have time to take care of my existing “to do” list, much less start on tomorrow’s. So, this one little step? It took me awhile to embrace. But now I do. I embrace it and recommend it wholeheartedly. If you’re like me, and your brain is in slow-motion in the morning, it’s likely that you’re like me in the evening as well: your brain is ticking and engaged. It’s ready to go. As such, packing a child’s lunch in the evening will take you half the time it does in the morning. That means you won’t have to remind yourself to get out a knife to spread peanut butter or stop to think about where you keep the goldfish. Beautiful.
Start the night before: papers. One thing that makes me absolutely, stark-raving mad is scrambling to find books, homework, and “sign-and-return this” papers as the kids are rushing out the door. Honestly, if you thought it was bad when I was just tired, try adding this dilemma to the mix. Not pretty. So before the kid head upstairs to brush their teeth at night, they need to locate ALL of the necessary items for school the next day and put them in their backpacks. Ahhh, less rushing, no lunatic mother–a wise choice.
Start the night before: outerwear. If you live way down south, you probably don’t need to worry about this one. But for those of us whose kids need rain gear or snow gear, you can save yourself an incredible amount of frustration by lining the gear up the night before. The only thing worse than not being able to find the library book that MUST be returned today, is only having one boot to stomp through the snow.
Don’t worry about the outfit. My boys learned to dress themselves early on. By the time they hit pre-school, they were thrilled to choose their clothing for the day. Have we had plaid shorts with striped shirts? You bet we have. How about khaki shorts, black socks, and loafers? Yep, that’s us. Mind you, I give a little guidance on school picture day. Other than that, they are very proud to dress themselves, and they’re quick about it, too.
Limit breakfast choices. Breakfast is mandatory around here, because, hey, I can read so I know kids are better off when they start their day with good food in their bellies. Our choices: oatmeal, cereal (the ones I choose to buy), or eggs. Side items: sausage (Bob Evans turkey links are awesome!), toast, &/or bagel. My point isn’t that these should also be the choices at your house. Your choices are your choices – just make sure there aren’t too many, or your kids will never get out of the kitchen & into the school on time.
Re-evaluate bedtime and alarm time. When it’s time to wake up, some kids do just fine. They roll out of bed, begin getting ready, and are ready to go without much hassle. Others stumble. They dawdle. They grumble and groan. (Hey, I like those kids already!) If your child tends towards the latter, they may need to rise a few minutes earlier to account for their pokiness, and, depending on how much earlier, they may need to have lights out a little earlier, too. Tired and grumpy is no way to start the day. Take it from me.
And you? Do you get your little (and bigger) ones out the door without too much trouble? If so, please share your top tips with the rest of us.
Have I mentioned that we’ve had some head trauma around here?
A few weeks ago, the most random thing happened. My 10-year old was sitting on the floor in his room, picking up a treasured football card that had fallen to the ground, and a full-size bowling pin fell off a shelf and whacked him in the back of the head.
I know, random. I told you.
For the record, the bowling pin was a favor from a birthday party years ago. The party was at the bowling alley, obviously, and afterwards, all of the kids signed the pin & he got to bring it home. It seemed like a logical thing to put on his shelf of treasures. Until this happened, that is. Now, of course, it seems like a really stupid, heavy, dangerous object to put on a shelf in a boy’s room. Retrospect provides that kind of perspective for you.
He’s fine, first of all. But initially, he wasn’t doing so hot. He turned gray, wobbled, thought he was going to lose his dinner, and had an extremely difficult time staying awake. We were yelling to try to keep him conscious. Yes, I called 911. Yes, we went to the emergency room. If you’ve ever experienced something like this, you know that there isn’t much they can do. You wait it out and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, he’d been there before. When he was only 2, just a tiny little guy, he ran inside after having tromped through the wet grass with his tennis shoes on. He slipped on our wood entryway floor and hit his head hard. His eyes rolled up, he stopped breathing, and in the midst of my screaming and the chaos I wondered if it was his last day. It was horrible, really horrible. That day, I rode in the ambulance with him, trying to be strong and it changed me. I worry more, even though I know it’s pointless. I worry about accidents because we had one and we got lucky. He’s had lots of happy days since but I’ve never forgotten the terror of that moment.
Last night, he was out in the yard playing touch football. He collided with a friend’s tooth and came home with a 1/2-inch gash in his scalp. My husband was out of town, so I had to take a good look. For the first time in my life, it made me lightheaded. I had to call my 13-year old in and explain that if I passed out, he should get our neighbor right away. (Thanks, Susie and Aaron, for always helping.) Fortunately I came to my senses & didn’t pass out. We called the doctor and I described the accident and wound as best I could. How’s this for gross? Since it was a tooth that caused the damage, there’s a higher risk of infection, so they don’t like to stitch or staple the scalp shut. Let’s just say he looks a little like Head Wound Harry today.
I’ll be very glad when he’s all healed up, and, if I could ask a favor of the universe (Hey God, Could you help me out here?), I would like no more head injuries or gross bloody gashes for a good long time. That would be swell.
