I have the current good fortune to
work part-time from home so that I can be the primary caretaker to our two
young children. While there is no greater joy for me than being with my babies,
taking care of young children all day long while trying to get any other work
done is EXHAUSTING.
Battle worn and over-caffeinated, I
would often pose the question to other moms who I believed had some secret to
surviving. Clearly, they must right? They had their children dressed, out the
door by 9:00 am, and in bed by 7:00 pm every day. I was lucky to be out of my
pajamas and the house before noon.
The secret, I was told, is to have a
schedule and clear routines so that everyone knows what happens next.
Sounds easy enough, but for someone who grew up winging it from day to day, I
found myself rebelling against the idea of creating a "schedule."
"That's no fun!" I thought. "Having a set schedule sounds too
rigid and boring."
So I continued winging it until I
realized that I was quickly overwhelmed. Everything - work, kids, and household
responsibilities - screamed for my attention all at once. I would often find
myself feeling flustered and ineffective. Because I didn’t set aside time every
day to work, I ran into the problem of pulling all-nighters in order to meet
deadlines. In turn, I became a grumpy, impatient version of myself, and was not
the parent that I wanted to be.
So, I decided to give this idea of
having a daily schedule another look.
CREATING A SCHEDULE THAT FIT OUR
FAMILY
I figured there must be an ideal
schedule on the internet that we could just copy. However, after spending way
too much time on Google, it was apparent that there was no "perfect"
schedule that would solve all of my problems. Every family is different, and I
needed to create our own schedule to fit our needs.
To start, I found this fantastic Daily Schedule {via Confessions of a Homeschooler} on Pinterest and decided to use it as my outline. It has the basic
elements of everything that seemed ideal for our purposes. Next, I removed the
daily curriculum and changed the flow of events to mirror the times and
routines for lunch, physical activity, and naps set by a local Montessori
preschool that we are interested in. For extra credit, I also created a morning
and evening routine chart to help our toddler learn the basics of taking care
of himself and his belongings on his own.
In the end, there is a lot of
flexibility built into our schedule. Our son is still quite young and he has
many years of formal education in the future. So, while I plan to introduce him
to more of a structured play environment and various Montessori style
activities, I don't expect that we will be focused on doing a set curriculum
during the week (e.g., language activities on Mondays, math on Tuesdays, and so
forth and so on). Rather, we use that time for activities or to attend play dates, etc. We also included limited screen time into the schedule, but only as a means to restrict when he is allowed to watch his favorite shows.
THE TAKE AWAY
I originally thought that having a
schedule would be stifling and boring. But, it is actually quite freeing. We
are still open to changing things up for special circumstances, but it is nice
to have a regular schedule to come back to that is comfortable and gets
everyone on the same page again. Having a schedule and routines give me a feeling
of being more in control of the day – as much as is humanly possible with two
babies – instead of having the day control me.
So, what about your family? What
kinds of routines and schedules do you have in place? Do you feel that you are
able to maintain a schedule in your family or is it easier for you to play
everything by ear? We want to hear – let us know!
