Am I the only one who makes silly rules or races for myself as encouragement to get things done? Like I'll tell myself that I can have a bowl a Cocoa Pebbles when I'm done folding the laundry or I'll make Sam race me in hanging up our clothes. Is that really strange or is it pretty normal? No, I'm serious. I really do want an answer.
Anyway, the reason I ask is because of my SuperMom Quest ...
Step Two
I made rules about how we use our time. Mind you, I try to keep these, but we all have our days. Now, we don't have a tv and I don't have much of a problem with ignoring my children while I read. The only things that really take me from my children are the internet and telephone. So that's where I started.
1) I am only allowed to sit down to use the internet after the kids are in bed and during nap time (11 am - 1 pm). I am allowed to randomly, and quickly, check my email or whatnot during the day, but I cannot sit down or stay on long.
2) I can only talk on the phone (with my sisters and friends) during the kids' free time. During our structured times - no phone. Except when we go on walks. Then I can. I'll explain structured time in my Step Three post.
3) The kids may only watch one movie or 30-60 minutes of shows each day. Generally between 5-6 pm, while I make dinner. By the end of the day I often find myself with a just a tad less patience and creativity than I started the day with. And my kitchen record of cuts and burns is, well, practically perfect. As in I get one or the other almost every single day. So I really don't need kids underfoot, rapidly progressing my record.
POTTY TRAINING UPDATE: Things are going well. Each kid only had once accident yesterday, both at the beginning. Between the two of them, we made toilet runs every 5 minutes all day long. PLEASE TELL ME IT WON'T ALWAYS BE LIKE THIS!!! Come night time both refused Pull-Ups or diapers. At 6am both kids were fast asleep and still dry. When they woke up, Elijah made it to the toilet in time. Seara did not. But they both were dry all night. Which is good because I only have one set of sheets for their beds! Here goes day 2.
Monday, March 2, 2009
SuperMom Quest - step 2
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18 comments:
I can't believe they went to bed without diapers/pullups! You are so brave! That's CRAZY!!! (Liam's only been out of pull-ups at night for a couple months- and he's 6! Though you know Ethan's been potty-trained at night since the beginning.) Anyways. Sorry to tell you, I don't think it's very common to race yourself or reward yourself with cold cereal and the like. But it's one of those quirky things about you that makes everyone love you. :) Good luck with your schedule and goals. They sound great. :)
Oh, and I was a little confused at first about what you said for number two about explaining structured time in step 3, because it isn't explain in number 3. But then I realized you are talking about step 3, which is another post following the supermom quest, not number 3 of step 2.
Whoa. That was confusing. Did you catch what I was saying?
I hope that you're not crazy for following a sort of self reward system because if you are, then I'm crazy too!
I do that a lot, actually. I do it for completing chores.
Who knew. I guess I'm not naturally motivated to do domestic chores. ;-)
Cara - okay, I immediately understood what you were confused about, but I had to read your comment twice to really get what you were saying. :) I'll try to fix the post a bit so it makes more sense. Thanks!
We definitely have the whole reward yourself thing in common. I only let myself watch a movie or tv if I'm nursing or doing housework (ironing and folding laundry is easiest where as doing the floors is a little harder!). My biggest issue is stopping myself from reading. I tell myself I can read another chapter if I... (make the bed, do the dishes etc.) I almost always break this one. Alyn and I love to talk on the phone while we do housework. It's amaing how much we get done without realizing it before the end of the call.
Good rules. Matt thinks stay-at-home mom's get a bad rap because people think we watch tv or surf the internet all day long. I'm trying not to prove him right!
I totally have to reward myself for doing housework! It's very, very normal. (Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.)
I totally do the same thing. I make up ridiculous stuff to encourage myself to get things done. For example, sometimes I won't get into the shower until I start playing a song and I make myself get out before the song is over. Ridiculous, but it totally works.
Janae- I do the rewards for myself as well.
I love the structure you have throughout the day. Please share more ideas along those lines.
As far as pottying goes, I'll have to send this to Heidi as well. I marked two weeks out at the end of November on our calendar. I decided that for those two weeks I wouldn't put diapers on Jonathan unless it was for his nap or bedtime. I took a change of clothes for him if we went out. I decided that if after the two weeks, it didn't work, I'd wait a few months. Give yourself a reward if you can make it two weeks. We still don't have nights down yet. It does get better and saves you tons of money! Call me if you want. Good luck!
Oh yes, incentives... I almost always watch a show while folding laundry. Then I look forward to it.. "If I fold laundry I can watch my show! Yay laundry!!!"
Oh yes, incentives... I almost always watch a show while folding laundry. Then I look forward to it.. "If I fold laundry I can watch my show! Yay laundry!!!"
I think racing/rewarding are fabulous ideas. In fact, racing is the only way to get Kate to do anything without a whine-fest. But I never considered applying the race/reward system to myself. It's pretty brilliant, actually. If the kids get something good for being good and not crying, shouldn't I be rewarded for being good and not crying? (Since some days I end up being bad AND crying.) Why not give myself a little bit of motivation to make it through the day? Brilliant, I say.
Also, you seriously make the rest of us look bad by having "structured" time. Really, I read that and thought, "Oh man, no wonder my days go like they do...I must be missing structure!" And, if you make it all the way to dinner before running out of patience and creativity, you are kicking my trash by about 7 hours! What kind of creative things do you do to keep them happily occupied while you do something by yourself, like, say, exercise? Blast!
And the toilet training thing....amazing! ONE ACCIDENT????? When I try to take my kid to the potty he yells "NO!" and runs away. Is it really worth the fight? So the fact that they are willingly going and determined NOT to wear diapers is a major, major, major, major plus. (Did I mention that it's a major plus?) I think you're well on your way to potty-trained-bliss. Good job. You deserve it, Mrs. structured time. :)
I race myself, too. I'm not as good at it as you are, but I do it. And incentives are awesome. I usually tell myself I have to get done with certain things on my "to do" list before I can blog. Keeps me from wasting time, I guess!
And HUZZAH for toilet training!
I cannot believe you are attempting double toilet training. You don't have to make goals to be supermom-you already are!
And I think everyone has incentives for things. And I think they work. Because most of the time when I don't work for something I don't work at all. (SO lazy, I know.)
So either I was wrong about the quirkiness of racing and rewarding yourself, or you attract quirkiness so all your friends do the same thing. :) Take your pick. :)
Cara - lol, I thought the same thing! When people started commenting and saying they did the same thing I wondered if I just attract people who are goofy like me! :)
I'll take your and Cara's comments as a compliment. I want to be goofy/quirky if I get to be like Janae!!
Oh. I totally reward myself. Even if it's 2 minutes to sit on the couch if I get the house vacuumed and the dishwasher unloaded. Otherwise I wouldn't get the things done I need to. I love that you are taking steps to become supermom. Don't you wish you could just do it all really well every day. That is what I wish. Sometimes being human is frustrating!
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