Kitchen Timer Saves the Day!

This blog post brought to you by my new coping strategy.

I haven’t posted much at all lately--not that I ever expected to have a lot of time to blog, but it really has been sporadic in the last few months.  Know why?  I have two little people who could eat up every second of my day, and every inch of my personal space if I let them.  All the time.  Every day.  It gets both tiring and monotonous.  

These two are breaking up the monotony by catching some snuggles in the back of Wren's chair train.  

I have always struggled with how to spend my stay-at-home-mom-time.  How much of the time do I pursue my interests slash all the household work slash personal hygiene, versus the constant needs and desires of my stay-at-home-children?  The question only became more questionable after having #2.  

So I end up half playing with them, half cruising around on the internet and not really benefiting either party.  I often feel guilty that I don’t play enough--especially with my toddler.  I often feel angry that I can’t just do one thing for myself.  I often feel bored.  I often feel pushed and pulled between the kids and anything else. 

Of course I have tried to explain “its Mommy’s time to do yadda yadda right now and you can play on your own.”  But for me, this is becomes too wishy washy.  I end up finding more and more to do around the house and not truly coming back to the kids and saying ‘ok, I’m here to play now!‘  And Wren never knows when she can ask for me to play with her and when I’m in the middle of something. 

The very best, is getting them to play together and hope for no head cracking. 

Also, quite frankly, playing with a toddler is boring much of the time.  She could have me pretend to pick out pretend shades of pretend fingernail polish for a pretend manicure forEVER.  This is interrupted only occasionally by eating a pretend snack.  It gets a little old and does not engender a great deal of my enthusiasm. 

So today, feeling sick of it all, I decided to do something perhaps a little silly to attempt a resolution.  I put on a timer.  30 minutes to do what they want, 30 minutes to do what mommy wants.  We take turns just like we always preach to our children. 

With the timer on, I know I have a certain amount of pretend picnics and beaches to look forward to before its my turn!  And you can’t contest the timer.  I simply goes off and tells everyone its mommy’s turn!  When in trouble, defer to the timer.  

“Mommyyyyyy go to the grocery store with meeeeeeaaaaa” (this is super fun game, as I love the real grocery store so much)

“Sorry sweetie, this is mommy’s turn.  We can go to the grocery store together on your turn!”

Guilt free.

This is all virtually perfect except for the 10 month old who is a free agent and wild card.  He regards no timer and knows no bounds.  But when I’m done with the diaper or the fireplace extraction, I know who’s turn we’re going back to.