Just call me Officer Tayler
First there was breakfast where I had to stand guard over three children to make sure that they ate all of their eggs. This was necessary since Gleek has been wild and sugar-shocked ever since field day. It seems that the last week of school was an unending stream of exciting things, most of which were coated in sugar. Today begins the detox where I feed the kids no treats and instead insist that they eat foods containing protein and vitamins. They didn’t like the switch. Poor lambs. But they did eat all of their eggs.
Next came the declaration of chores to be done. The influx of sugar over the past week was accompanied by an influx of candy wrappers which the children cheerfully strewed throughout the entire house. Also Gleek expressed her love of nature by bringing some of it in the house. I like plants. They are pretty. But I don’t like them so much when they’ve lain on my floor drying out and then been stomped into confetti. For variety the kids decided to pull out piles of toys and throw them about at random. They were a bit dismayed to discover that I expected them to clean up the mess.
At first I had hopes that I could motivate them with the promise of extra stars on their “we are working together to earn a cool thing” chart. No dice. In the end I had to stand over each child in turn saying “Now pick up the cars and put them in the bucket.” “Now put all the laundry in the basket.” “Now wipe the sink.” Etc. Link had the hardest time of it. He had to vacuum. I’m the meanest mom ever. Even worse, his dad came along and showed him how to vacuum efficiently rather than just wandering the vacuum around the room at random.
By the time we finished the work, we were overdue for lunch. Again I had to stand over Gleek and Patch to make sure that they ate appropriate amounts of their burritos. Link and Kiki both love burritos and had two each. I told the kids that they were going to have to take turns hating the foods because there are so few foods that everyone likes.
At lunch I announced that the hour after lunch would be a quiet time. This siesta is something that is going to be increasingly necessary as the weather heats up. Mid-summer the best time to be outside is between 7-9 pm. That means that bedtime will be late. But we still need to be up early because the best business get-stuff-done hours are in the morning. Hence the necessity of a quiet space in the middle of the day when both Gleek and Patch are required to stay quietly in their beds. I don’t know how often they will nap, but by creating the habitual space for it I’m improving the chances. If nothing else we’ll all be more cheerful for having a quiet alone time midday. That’s the theory. The reality today is that I’m siting here typing on my laptop while guarding to make sure that everyone stays put and stays quiet.
Hopefully when quiet time is done there will be a lot less enforcement required of me. Maybe I’ll even get to start on the list of things that I’d assigned to myself for today.