parenting

Multi-Tasking – Cleaning the Kitchen and Teaching Life Lessons

April 17, 2013 By Nony 11 Comments

Here’s a big part of our parenting philosophy:

We do our best to not be blatantly unfair in how we treat our children, but we rarely go out of our way to change unfair situations that happen to our kids outside of the family.

Life isn’t fair.

Hubby and I know that it’s better to deal with a situation than to complain about how unfair it is. We know because we’ve been alive more than three 0r four years.

Thankfully, it seems our kids have somewhat accepted this life philosophy.

We’re still going on the Family Kitchen Clean Up Time that we started back in January. The newness has definitely worn off, and it still isn’t automatic, but most nights we get it done.

Right now, though, someone is gone most nights

We’ve entered the craziness that is baseball season. We love it, but almost every night, one kid has to leave right after supper to head to church or baseball practice.

Soooo, we’re rarely all there to do our fair share.

It’s a perfect opportunity to teach (and learn) the life lesson that certain things just have to be done. If there’s someone there to share the work, great. If not, it still has to be done.

Being there, being able . . . that’s all that’s needed to qualify you as tonight’s kitchen cleaner-upper.

We could leave the kitchen cleaning until everyone is home, but by then we’re all tired, we’re prepping for bed, and Scatter-brained Mama is overly likely to completely forget.

And we can’t risk that.

Because the kitchen has to be cleaned.

That’s life.

And now, a few pictures that happen when one of the nine-year-old’s jobs for the night is to take pictures for Mom’s blog:

Filed Under: parenting | 11 Comments

Remembering Kids’ Medicine

March 26, 2013 By Nony 7 Comments

On the morning of March 19th . . . an exciting thing happened. I gave my 9yo his last dose of an antibiotic.

Exactly on time.

Meaning, not one of TWENTY doses had been missed.

I shared on Facebook, and you celebrated with me. Evidently, I’m not the only one who has stretched a ten-day antibiotic into sixteen days.

I’ve tried everything. I’ve taped neon-colored signs to the stove, the fridge, the coffee-maker.

But I always miss a dose or six. Neon-colored signs are no match for my Slob Vision.

So how did I do it this time?

I set the alarm on my phone to repeat every day, twice a day.

I may not be able to find keys or shoes or certain totally-necessary unmentionables when I need them . . . but I’ve never lost my phone.

Filed Under: parenting | 7 Comments

Teamwork

January 15, 2013 By Nony 9 Comments

So yesterday I spilled my Slob Guts about my personal grief over not having been the perfect mother during my kids’ preschool years.

Today I’m going to share how Teamwork has been going so far this year. We’ve been at it for one week.

(Technically, we’re two weeks into the year, but did anyone actually begin working on New Year’s Resolutions before starting back to school?)

The Sunday night before school started, we had a Family Meeting (which was really just a purposeful talk during supper). Hubby and I began by reminding the kids how we’ve benefited as a family from my blog over the past year-or-so. We were able to take vacations with BOTH sides of our extended family. We went to Medieval Times, had fantastic seats at a Rangers game, and we all LOVE our new fancy fridge.

(It really wasn’t difficult to remind them, as they are already my biggest fans. Though I do sometimes worry who they’ve told about my blog . . . )

Then I shared with them my vision for 2013. We’d talked about all of it before, but now we were discussing a plan. They were excited.

I reminded them how much time I already spend working on my blog. I asked them to imagine how much more time I’ll need to work if I add these new projects.

They understood.

I told them, “I have a job. We need to start running our home like I have a job.”

And I told them that I needed their help.

We talked about how thankful we are that I’m able to make a little money from something that allows me to still be able to take them to the pool every single day of the summer. We discussed how great it is that I get to pick them up from school every day.

They’re old enough to see that not everyone gets to do this.

They’re old enough.

Then I told them what I needed from them. I didn’t create a chart or system. I just said, “We’re going to making cleaning up the kitchen part of dinner time. Every night.”

And we did.

After supper, my 11yo claimed the sink and filled the dishwasher. My 6yo gathered scraps for the dog and cleared the table while my 9yo wiped down the counters and the table.

And I realized that even though I hadn’t succeeded at making this an everyday part of their lives, I had taught them how to do these things.

In fits and spurts. On focused (though not necessarily consistent) summer days.

And as they worked on their jobs, I was able to sweep and straighten and do some of the things that get pushed to the side when I’m overwhelmed with just the basics.

It was such a relief to know I wasn’t starting from nothing. Such a reassurance to know that even a randomly taught lesson has lasting impact.

Throughout the week, it got easier. My ever-observant 9yo said, “It’s getting easier to clean up the kitchen since we’re doing it every day” and “We’ve had plenty of clean glasses this week!”

When there were more hands than jobs, I had my 6yo gather the recycling or my 9yo pick up the living room.

And as we worked, we sang. At the top of our lungs. And we were together.

And that . . . makes my Mommy Heart proud.

Do you have something you’re focusing on in 2013? How is it going so far?

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Did you get your copy of my new e-book yet? It’s on sale through the end of January!