October 9, 2006
ahhh, Monday
Recently, the weekends have been kicking my ass, partly because it’s been so hot but mostly because we’re bad weekend people. I am actually RELIEVED when Monday rolls around and everyone gets the hell out of my house.
How sad is that?
Weekends are hard for us because we all have COMPLETELY different ideas about what exactly the “weekend” should consist of. The kids are desperate, after a week of school, to hang out in their pajamas and reacquaint themselves with all the toys that I’ve spent the entire week organizing and putting away. Wade wants to go Do! Something! because he’s been at work all week and hasn’t spent any fun time with the kids, but this means that we all have to get dressed and find our shoes. Eventually we get ourselves together to leave the house, sometimes even to do more than just get coffee at Starbucks, although it’s often a struggle to get Charlie going because he would happily play in his room all day, although he wants someone to play WITH him the whole time. Add to that the fact that our plans are always pretty free-form and spontaneous, which doesn’t always work for Henry who really does better with lots of structure, and we often spend some large portion of the weekend with a kid (or two!) crying about nothing.
All I want is to shower without anyone coming in to report about what Daddy is doing.
Saturday morning, for example, BOTH boys came screeching into the bathroom to inform me that the toaster! smelled bad! because something was BURNING!
“WHERE IS DADDY?” I demanded.
“He’s taking care of it,” Henry said. “Nothing was on FIRE, but something was BURNING.” (A piece of frozen French Toast lodged itself in the toaster. Did I really need to hear about this while I was washing my hair? No. Did BOTH children need to climb in the shower with me AT THE SAME TIME? No. Will they do it again next weekend? Most certainly.)
During the week, I get up at 5:45 so that I can shower and get dressed before anyone else gets up. I know it sounds crazy, but I am not fully human until after my shower. And a cup of coffee (or three). Plus, I am constitutionally incapable of making the boys’ lunches the night before, so I have to do that in the morning.
And then I have to chaperone my children though the whole Get Ready For School routine. “Okay, eat your waffle! Have you gone potty? Wash your hands! While you’re in there, why don’t you brush your teeth? Today you need a LONG SLEEVED shirt! Okay, let’s make your bed! Do you know where your school bag is? Get your shoes on!”
Weekday mornings are easy these days; we have specific things we need to do, and we stay on task and do them. Weekends, on the other hand, are a little too Free Form for my taste. Wade and I sit and drink our coffee while the kids, who are NOT getting dressed or brushing their teeth or making their beds, play Knock Me Down in another room. Usually by 8:00 am someone is crying. Occasionally, it’s me.
I envy people who have Really Great Weekend Plans all the time. We’re walking a fine line between planning too much and planning too little; because we are committed to not overscheduling and overwhelming our kids, we plan less instead of more. Recently, though, we are consistently erring on the planning too little side, and we find ourselves saying, “Are you SERIOUS? It’s only ONE O’CLOCK? Do you think the kids want to watch a movie?” (Answer: hell no! they want to torment mommy and daddy by covering each other in dirt or hitting each other with the stupid plastic swords! And then at bedtime they will sob, “But we never got to watch a MOOOOVIE!”) I certainly don’t want to overwhelm my kids, but they don’t do well with large expanses of open time. I’m starting to feel like I need to map out our weekend earlier in the week, to really think about Fun Things To Do. Like, uh . . . see? I suck at this.
I also hate that when the kids are falling apart (because they don’t want to go POTTY! or they have to wear SHOES! or they hate the ZOO!) Wade and I will start snapping at each other about really stupid things, which just makes the whole weekend MORE fun.
And then, just when I think the weekend is going to kill me, we have a moment like this:
Halloween superheros
And then I think, meh, who needs big plans when you have superhero costumes?
Posted by Susan @ 9:06 am • everyday life
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October 9th, 2006 at 10:22 am, Karen Rani Says:
How freakin’ cute are they?
I totally get it about the weekend. I’m the one who wants to go do stuff, while Daren is alot about the Home Depot and the Home Improvement and grunt grunt grunt. Sigh.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:31 am, MamaChristy Says:
What. cute.costumes. Just darling.
I guess that is one nnice thing about only having one child reight now and being home with him all. damn. day. Our schedule is the same day in and day out. Except he sleeps until 7:30 on weekdays and only until 6:15 on the weekends. *sigh*
Do you have a children’s museum in your area? We joined with a family membership because it is ridiculously expensive on a day-to-day basis and we go at least once during the week and frequently on weekends. That and the park when it isn’t pure hell outside.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:49 am, Velma Says:
Finding the balance between too much to do and too much slack time is tough. Lately, we’ve been doing the divide and conquer thing, where Daddy does his things on Saturday morning (usually cathing up on work and then the gym), and then we all hang out Saturday afternoon. We often go out on Saturday night without the kids, and then on Sunday afternoon, Daddy takes the kids somewhere (park, children’s museum) while Mommy has the house to herself for a precious hour or two.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:58 am, M&Co. Says:
Those are too cute! Though I don’t think I’d have called them costumes. We have Incredibles PJ’s for the BoyChild just like Charlie’s!
October 9th, 2006 at 11:21 am, Undercover Mutha Says:
I have got to get me one of those!
October 9th, 2006 at 11:29 am, Chilihead2 Says:
ADORABLE! (And totally worthy of all caps.)
October 9th, 2006 at 11:38 am, Mir Says:
See, that’s just photographic PROOF of how much cooler of a mom than me you are. I was all “Oh! Look! Your costumes came! Look how nice! Okay, get your mitts off of them, you can see them again on Halloween!”
October 9th, 2006 at 11:53 am, Jenorama Says:
I am going to write about this on Blogging Baby.
October 9th, 2006 at 11:55 am, Kristen Says:
“I also hate that when the kids are falling apart, Wade and I will start snapping at each other about really stupid things, which just makes the whole weekend MORE fun.”
Um, yeah. See:
http://homeonthefringe.blogspot.com/2006/10/this-message-will-self-destruct.html
October 9th, 2006 at 11:58 am, Karyn Says:
Dude.
We have the same floor.
Yeah, we’ve discovered that superhero costumes go a long way. They go even further if your ASD kid will WEAR ONE.
The weekends can be too freestyling for me sometimes as well. I like routine. Then again, I’m inherently lazy, so it’s easy to just let them run around naked watching Noggin and eating Cheez Its all day. (Not that I’d necessarily DO that…. well… not EVERY day…)
October 9th, 2006 at 1:06 pm, Amy W Says:
Cute…
Ah, the weekends. My husband wants to do house stuff, I want to do cool stuff with the kids, and my oldest would just rather play. And then’s there the whole napping issue to plan stuff around. But I do love the leisurely mornings, hopefully my daughters will just remember the fact that Mom and Dad were both there.
October 9th, 2006 at 1:22 pm, Jamie Says:
So, do husbands get that some kids just need supervision? We go through similar trials in our home. This summer I let Sundays go…I can’t drive the “get your a** ready” train M-F AND Sunday just to be late for church AGAIN!!! We are making some serious changes. The only one who wilingly wants to dress himself and go on the potty, physically cannot cause he’s only 1 1/2. ARRGGHH! Youe seriously have cute kids though!
October 9th, 2006 at 3:55 pm, Melissa Says:
Help! I’m drowning in the cuteness! AcK! Can’t! Breathe!
Okay, I’m good now. Wow, how clever are Velma’s weekend plans?! I say you adopt part of her strategy and have Daddy take the boys out while Mommy SHOWERS.
I’ve also been leaning too heavily toward free form lately, but it’s starting to look more like free fall. Must be time to get a daily planner or something.
October 9th, 2006 at 8:34 pm, Holly Says:
Too too cute!
While I despise running errands on the weekends with two kids and a husband who would rather be watching college football in tow, I do like having some plans. One “plan” that is pretty painless is a trip to one of the many parks/playgrounds in our neighborhood or a nearby ‘hood. We’re big park-goers, hitting at least one park each weekend day, and occasionally two a day. Fall is such a great time of the year for outdoor play. While it can be a PITA herding the kids into stroller or car for those outings, we’re all in a much better frame of mood once we’ve spent an hour or two outdoors. Plus it gives some structure to our morning or afternoon and burns off some of that preschooler energy. I highly recommend!
October 9th, 2006 at 9:36 pm, Molly Says:
My favorite part is where you all have to find your shoes! I can SO relate.I was at least 40 before I could take a shower by myself. I barely escaped with my sanity, and even that is open to debate…love your blog!
October 9th, 2006 at 10:11 pm, Sarcastic Journalist Says:
If it makes you feel any better, our weekends ALWAYS suck. Except this last one, it didn’t suck.
And we usually have crying (me) and screaming (husband) and whining (ellie) and hitting head on the floor (sam).
But this weekend, you will have fun.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:49 am, Waya Says:
I came via Blogging Baby b/c the pictures of the boys was so cute!! And I’m like you, I have to get up early to get a shower in or else, I can’t function the whole day. Not to mention I won’t be able to take a shower with two kids around while the other one’s in school.
Our weekends are pretty simple really. The kids don’t get to watch tv on weekdays so they want to “catch up” on their tv watching time. Or we’ll go to eat at the mall or something.
October 10th, 2006 at 5:38 am, Em Says:
You are describing my weekend to a tee - except that my husband works Sundays so I have to make my own plans with the kids (either that or go crazy).
October 10th, 2006 at 7:11 am, Suburban Turmoil Says:
Ha ha! That picture made it all worthwhile, for sure!
You just scared the crap out of me. I met my stepdaughters when they were 8 and 10 and pretty much had it together, so besides my 8-year-old falling apart at every meal out, we had great weekends together. But now with two small ones coming along, I’m starting to get nervous!
October 10th, 2006 at 8:36 am, boogiemum Says:
Sounds like you are describing weekends here at the boogie abode. this weekend the boogie brats were torturing each other and hubby and I just looked at each other and laughed because we knew neither of us were going to stop it because we were worn out and they were leaving us alone at the minute.
We have instituted Sunday as family fun day and either in the morning or afternoon every Sunday we go out and do something fun with the kids. It could be getting donuts or going to the zoo. The rest of the weekend is filled with non-planned “bliss”
cute superheros you got there!
October 12th, 2006 at 5:05 pm, michele Says:
Dear Lord you just described my life.
October 13th, 2006 at 5:52 am, chris Says:
that’s a million dollar photo right there! (think of the future blackmail possibilities!) we have one of my brothers with towels for capes- during the eishenhower administration!
October 13th, 2006 at 7:18 am, Ali Says:
They’re cute. No the feeling during the week have to get my 12 year old to school each morning for 8.20 back home by 2.45.