Parenting grade school kids

At various time when my babies were babies, I looked forward to and almost longed for the days when both kids would finally be in school full time. Well, those days have arrived! For the past 5 months I've been juggling the lives of a kindergartener and second grader (in addition to my own and sometimes my husbands). I used to think that because the kids would be "gone all day" that I would get so much accomplished in their absence, leaving me nothing else to do but dote on them when they returned home. It would be so great! Ha ha ha ha! That is so not how our reality is playing out! Here is an example of a typical week-day in our household:




6:30am I get up, shower & dress
6:50am I set up breakfast and pack lunches
7:05am I wake up both kids, they get dressed & I do my daughters hair
7:15am We three eat breakfast together
7:30am Brush teeth
7:40am leave the house for school
7:50am drop kids off at school for 8am start.
(I go to work daily from 8am-12:30pm)




From 12:30-2:30pm I use this time to eat my lunch, do household chores, set up dinner, workout, run errands.




2:30pm-go to pick up kids
2:45pm Pick up kids
3:00pm home from pick up, unpack lunch bags & folders, take out homework, read papers
3:00pm kids have snack
3:10pm kids do homework
3:45pm one kid is finished and goes off to play
4:00pm other one finishes and joins sibling to play. I put away homework, begin to prep dinner
5:00pm eat dinner together
5:30pm showers
6:00pm reading homework for both kids
6:30pm TV show for the kids while they have a snack
7:00pm One kid goes to practice piano while other kid gets ready for bed
7:30pm we are all upstairs. By now my husband is home so he is catching up with the kids as one gets ready for bed.
7:45pm both kids are in bed.




NOTE: the above time line is for days we do not have piano or swim lessons. On those days, the items between 3:30pm- 6:30pm are shifted around to accommodate the extra curricular activity.




Our lives these days are very scheduled with very little wiggle room. Often times the kids will ask to have "play dates" with their friends. It makes me sad to say "but we don't have time during the week." However, it is literally the truth. I barely have time with them during the week. My time with them is spent shuffling them from one task or activity to another & over seeing everything. My parenting has been more of managing verses "teaching"...like when they were babies. This makes me sad too because as a parent/manager I'm more often than not "the bad guy."  I'm the one who has to cut off their play time after an hour so we can eat. When I mention the word "shower" they run away from me! When I was parent/teacher I felt as though I was this positive role model introducing my children to the world and they were sponges who didn't want to leave Mommy's side. As parents we will wear many hats as our children grow. Its good to spend time reflecting on how you're parenting these days and thank goodness for weekends when you can make up the deficiencies!