What is quiet time, you say? Well, it's supposed to be a time to wind down during the day. A time when the chaos dims, when you can reconnect with God or just plain take a nap.
Needless to say, that doesn't happen very often around here. Here's what quiet time looks like at my house.
Stage 1. When my kids are too young to climb out of the crib, I can just put them in bed and walk away. That works well until the inevitable day when I hear a "thump" and wailing coming from the baby monitor. They have learned how to climb out of the crib but have not learned about gravity yet. We then progress to stage 2.
Stage 2. I let them play in their rooms and shut the door. Of course I have to do damage control in their rooms which takes all the next day until quiet time again...*sigh*... Now, I can keep them in there until they learn how to turn the knob on the door, or until they can dismantle a baby gate, whichever comes first. Then they come down every five minutes asking me if they can get up yet. That's when we get to stage 3.
Stage 3. At this point, I give them the remote control and tell them I'm going to take a nap. This works well because They have a pre-determined list of shows they can watch, and I get a little sleep. Of course by the time I get to this point it's time to get up and make dinner...
The daily ponderings and wanderings of life in "Bee's garden"
3 comments:
I hear you. It is especially hard when you are a homeschooling mom. While it is great to have your kids around 24/7, it is hard to get a break. BUT, the good news is, it takes 12 short years to grow a fabulous babysitter!
LOL! I only have 2 more years to go before I've grown my first baby sitter. Now, I'm not so sure she'll be able to watch her own siblings right away. Kinda of like trial by volcano!
I've started setting a timer and sending them to various rooms. It's better than nothing.
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