The Secret to My Sucess

Yesterday, the boys and I went up to Ohio to visit my mom for her birthday.  We had a nice visit and the boys even got to ride in a combine. 

Although to visit was fun, one question that my mom asked me really jumped out, she asked me how staying at home with the boys compared with my corporate job.  My mom was a stay-at-home mom and always talked about how much work she did and how it was so hard, so I knew that it was a bit of a loaded question.  I considered just giving her the answer that she wanted (it was her birthday) but instead I was honest and told her it was a lot easier than the corporate job but it takes a while to get used to getting paid in hugs and giggles instead of dollars.

I know why being a stay-at-home parent was hard for my mom.  She did a good job, but she is a bit of a loner who doesn't keep many friends.  She didn't have a community of people to get together with and do "parent things", and she didn't have me involved in any activities so she was 100% responsible for my entertainment.

I have had sucessful days and less sucessful days in the past few weeks.  The sucess of each day is almost totally dependent on having a flexible plan and schedule in place with one or two highlight activities.  Disasterous days happen on days where there is no plan or if the plan gets thrown off and I don't realize it quickly enough and move on to the next activity before extreme boredom sets in.

My days go something like this:

8am - Wakeup, get dressed, talk about what we're doing for the day (its important to let them know the plan)
8:15 - Breakfast - usually something I've already cooked and can warm up quickly - pancakes and waffles are great for this (I make them from scratch and hide healthy stuff in there)!
8:45 - Talk about the day again then let the boys do some play on their own.
9:15 or so - Start the main thing for the day.  It could be a trip to the park or a class or the library or on Fridays the grocery store
9:45 - Snack - don't miss this!!
11:30 - Ask about lunch, my kids are pretty flexible about lunch time so they can make it until 12:00 or 12:15 but you can't assume that they'll make it.
12:45 to 1:15 get home for Eli's nap time.  Eli can make it to 1:30 but it starts to get a little iffy.  Kai has a quiet time during Eli's nap.  Sometimes Kai will nap but mostly he just plays in his room.
1:15-3:00 - ME TIME!!  I will do about 30 minutes of house work then work on my business, study, or read for pleasure.
3:05 - Snack, be ready because they're hungry (Kai is usually out of his room a little before this but he prefers eating with Eli and sometimes he even helps me get it ready).
If the schedule has been kept reasonably well, the boys are really flexible and happy from here until dinner time.  Some days we have something planned like Karate or a trip to the swimming pool and some days we just do whatever the boys come up with like playing golf in the back yard or something quieter inside like reading or coloring.  I play the afternoons by ear and have a list of go-to things to get everyone back to their happy place if someone catches a case of the grumpys.

So, there you have it.  The above schedule works for me and my boys and makes this "job" seem like a play date.  Of course, I would love to get some pointers from other professional full-time parents.  Leave a comment and help a brother out if you can!

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. - Proverbs 16:9