I get a kick out of young parents who tell me about their busy kids with that tone of " I do not think you understand, how could you possibly know?!?"
I do.
Our three kids arrived in short order, three, one and brand new.
When our daughter was two, I was counting down the days until she was old enough for the local gymnastics programs. Our living room had become a gymnasium, and the traffic patterns of our home had become the favourite place for spontaneous laps and speed trials. That was all after going to the park for the morning and spending the afternoon biking.
Then our son came along. Impatient to move, watching his sister have all the fun, he decided to take his first steps the week before he turned eight months old. Two weeks later, he joined the laps and speed trial races. He was running everywhere and never stopped. To get him to sleep, we basically had to tackle him on his bed and force him to stop long enough for sleep to overtake him. He usually napped 20 minutes and shear will forced him awake, he didn't want to miss a thing!
Then number three came along. I thought I might die...
My basic goal was to have them tired enough to be nodding to sleep in their dinner plates.
Here were a few of my strategies
- Get out and play! Embrace all forms of recreation in every season! Biking, swimming, hiking, in-line skating, sledding, skating, skiing, snowshoeing, badminton, tennis, balls of every shape size and form take up the majority of storage in our home.
- Open spaces. While they are little, keep your basement wide open and unfinished so they can ride their bikes, scooters, skateboards around and around and around. Only when the equipment gets too big to turn safely in your space should you consider moving it all outside and making a comfortable living space.
- Swimming. Take advantage of lakes and pools. During the winter, we were at the pool 2-3 times a week. Did I like it? Not so much. We're the benefits worth it? Absolutely!! Those afternoons may have been the only times I succeeded in tiring them out enough to be sleepy at supper.
- Appoint them "Obstacle Course Engineers". This was a favourite activity. Outside in good weather, down in the basement when it is cold or rainy. They loved creating challenges for themselves, and it kept them busy and happy for hours! A fantastic use of time :)
- Build an active lifestyle. Prepare your partner that after dinner is not sit down and relax time. Let them know the plan so they can gear up for the ice rink, sledding hill or tennis court.
- Choose a family sport. Once they are old enough, joining a sport together can be fun too. We all did Karate for a while. We did love training together in that sport. It ended for me when Craig injured his finger, and another participant broke two of hers. I need my hands for my job. I just couldn't risk it. Ha! A lot of good that did me :)
- Variety of opportunity.When they got older, we let them try one sport a year until they found the one they loved. That happened for our oldest two when team sports became part of the school activities open to them Our youngest loves rock climbing, and we need to be better at giving him the opportunity for that.
- Free Time. Unscheduled time is extremely important too; I found that once we had expended physical energy they had more focus for story time, painting, drawing or other creative activities. I am honestly not sure how I managed it, but we always had a quiet hour after lunch. Everyone in their space, doing something quiet and the odd time sleeping. That was strictly for my sanity as I geared up to face the afternoon.
Those are a few of the strategies that have helped me survive busy kids.
What are some approaches that have helped you?
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