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Anastasia
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| Posted: April 24 2010 at 11:29am | IP Logged
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What on earth do you do when your household seems like it's collapsing? It might be the pregnancy hormones talking, but so much stuff has gone kablooey in the last few hours, I'm feeling overwhelmed. Kids are disobedient, the laundry needs work, the little one poured all the fish food in the tank so it needs cleaning, they burst the beanbags all over an already messy family room. My husband has to be out of town today. Is there anything I can do besides screaming at the ceiling?
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 24 2010 at 11:37am | IP Logged
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yes, take everyone outside for a walk or just in the yard..change the situation.. then collect everyone and tell them what you expect to happen and then go back in and tackle one small bite at a time.. maybe with the.. as soon as we do this one or two things.. we'll take another break together.. then do another one or two things together and antoher break etc.
But don't explain to the kids more than the NEXT step with the promise of another break to follow.
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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 24 2010 at 11:44am | IP Logged
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We have those days, too.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Pilgrim
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| Posted: April 24 2010 at 11:55am | IP Logged
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Pray together, or by yourself. I've found our Lady of the Miraculous Medal mireaculously(truly) helpful lately when things feel like this. On days like that we find that there are either weather changes or a full moon coming up(which there is), and it's usually 4 days before the full moon that things are worst affected in our house. Some don't believe these two factors affect things, I do not believe it in any superstitious way in the least, but merely in that the natural happenings in our atmosphere do truly affect us. If the ocean is affected by the pull of the moon, and we are made up of so much water, it seems to stand to reason that the changes in the moon affect us too. And windy days really seem to affect animals and children. Dh used to work on a farm and he said without fail on windy days the heifers would go nuts!
I know it doesn't answer what to do, but it helps to sometimes know the cause of what's going wrong so we can face it, refresh ourselves somehow, and do what we can to work with it.
Make sure to take it easy on yourself and do something with the kids once it's all blown over to rejuvenate the day. Somertimes on the worst days I just stop everything and say okay we'rte done with sudies, work, etc. lets take a break.
And then sometimes the only answer is to separate everyone, and take a break from it all in as much peace as you can find, hopefully getting a quiet moment to refresh!
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SuzanneG
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| Posted: April 24 2010 at 4:44pm | IP Logged
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We usually go for a walk or do something somewhat "fun" and then we have a "team meeting"....rallying the troops!
I'm honest with them....telling them how I feel..."I'm sad that Daddy's gone, and I'm feeling frustrated because...." Then I emphasize that I really need their help and can we PLEASE....for the next 30 minutes work REALLY hard to get cleaned up and get a few things done, then we'll take a fun break, and do another 20 minutes of work....so the one-thing-at-a-time that Jodie talked about above.
Sometimes, I also will plug the little ones in for a video for 30 minutes, and pay the older 2 to run-like-crazy-doing-whatever-I-tell-them or give-them-a-list. Between the three of us, we get 90 minutes of work done. My older two are 9 and 7.5 years old. The 6yo is in charge of the little ones in front of the TV.
Another strategy is to just "accept" the chaos while the kids are awake, and just VOW to catch-up after everyone goes to bed. Early bedtime. And, then I have 3 hours to get caught up and bring everything under control. No breaks, no sit-downs....just GOOOOO! I was much more successful with this up until about 3 years ago....I now do not have the energy anymore to go full-boar until 10 or 11:00 at night. It's much more difficult now.
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Suzanne in ID
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Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 24 2010 at 5:58pm | IP Logged
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Someone here... maybe one of the Marys.... wisely said that on "those days" she likes to drop everything and take the kids to mass. That way there is one beautiful, constructive thing done for the day, and when you get home you can regroup.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 26 2010 at 8:13am | IP Logged
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Anastasia wrote:
| What on earth do you do when your household seems like it's collapsing? It might be the pregnancy hormones talking, but so much stuff has gone kablooey in the last few hours, I'm feeling overwhelmed. Kids are disobedient, the laundry needs work, the little one poured all the fish food in the tank so it needs cleaning, they burst the beanbags all over an already messy family room. My husband has to be out of town today. Is there anything I can do besides screaming at the ceiling? |
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How are you doing, Anastasia?
That sounds like a day that would have really rattled me!! I pray you found a way to get through the day with your sanity intact and that you can smile at it all now!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: One of THOSE days
