Rush, rush, rush through the day! You know the feeling. It is that heart pounding, have to get to the kids, do the homework, make the dinner, bedtime kind of feeling. Only to have to start all over again the next day. First of all, slow down. Take a deep breath and reach somewhere in your brain that takes you far from there so you can get a grip on yourself. Once you have done that you will be able to handle things a heck of a lot better and with a calmer interior.
Pace yourself. Slow and steady gets further ahead then rushing around. When you rush around you tend to make mistakes or lose your temper. It is not good for you or the kids. They need a peaceful, calm, and rational parent to spend their evening with. Mealtime seems to be a difficult task after coming home from a long, hard day. Remember, the kids, even though they are kids have also had a lot to cope with throughout the day. Their “work” is school and it is sometimes just as stressful to them as your workday is to you.
To avoid making mealtime stressful and instead make it a relaxing time, as it should be, plan ahead. Make your meals in batches and freeze them the weekend before. Start with a full freezer every week. Pulling things out of the freezer and heating them up is a whole lot easier than cooking from scratch. There will not be pans to wash up after dinner either. If the kids are old enough, and even a child as young as four can help, enlist their capabilities. It will not only help you and ease up the stress; it will make them feel good to be able to help out. Have them set the table and get the younger children ready to eat. They can help them wash their hands and get them sitting down to the table. This leaves you to finish up last minute preparations in the kitchen. Finally, have them all bring their dishes to the sink after they eat. Start this lesson at an early age so that it will be second nature to them. With everyone helping out the work will be done in a great deal less time. This will leave valuable time open to work on the rest of the day’s chores and enjoy some quality time together before turning in for the night.
Angel Lynn writes in weight loss, single parenting, and health