January
2007
A Peaceful Schedule
By Meredith Efken
Having challenged myself with my last post about making changes in my own life to create more peace in my home, I sat down over the weekend to work out a “New and Improved” daily schedule for my children. I know that if I have things planned out for them, then that helps me find time to do MY work–whether it’s blogging, writing, editing, or whatever.
I know this…and yet I tend to fall off the wagon with it on a fairly regular basis, and the bump from the fall hurts! (WHY I do this to myself, I’ll never figure out…) So after things get to be absolutely intolerable, and the girls are running around pecking each other like nasty little hens, and I’m feeling like the world has become one of those spatter paint spinners gone mad, THEN I realize that it’s because I’ve allowed any semblance of structure to fall apart. And it’s time to…
Get Back On A Schedule!
I hate schedules. I really do. I think it was probably because we had lots of them when I was a kid, and they were a source of stress and tension. I understand now why my mother felt they were necessary, but I’ve always been rather reluctant to utilize this tool for myself. However, you get to a point after so much lunacy that you are willing to try anything, and that’s where I came to on the issue of structuring my children’s day.
I started with a timid, vapid schedule. “In the mornings I will do school. In the afternoons they will take naps or have quiet time, and I will work.” Yes, I can hear all you experienced mothers laughing! It was like our nation’s first try at the constitution. Too wimpy to be useful.
So gradually I ramped up. Two hour slots eventually got whittled down to one hour slots. And miracle of miracles–it really did work! And to keep things from getting tense and making the schedule feel like a prison sentence, I’ve told my girls that this is a guide only. A tool to help us. And if we get off the schedule, IT’S OKAY! I won’t get mad, and they needn’t freak out either.
I’m proud to say my newest schedule is in HALF HOUR increments! And it is working quite well. We’ve gotten more accomplished in the past three days of school than we did all of December, and I have gotten eight hours of editing done and several more hours of work on my own writing projects.
It amazes me what a workable routine can do for the amount of peace in a home. My children actually are much happier when there is a routine. I guess I was the bizarre one for not liking routines as a child. And while I’m still not routine-oriented by nature, I have come to appreciate their usefulness as an adult.
Oops, my blogging time is almost over (according to my schedule). Better scoot!
The A Peaceful Schedule by Violet Voices, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Written By: Meredith Efken
Posted under: On Being a Parent, Stay At Home Parents . 
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I also just recently sat down and created a daily schedule for things that need to occur. I can’t say it has been 100% followed yet, but at least it provides a goal and direction for me to head.
Hope all is well there and you find yourselves settling in to the new year. Love to you all!
Hey! Great to hear from you, too, momrn2! Love ya back! I need to pop over to your blog and say hi. I updated my version of Firefox, and so now my bloglines notifier doesn’t work, so I’ve been forgetting to keep up on my friends’ blogs. I think I’m going to have to switch to some other notifier or else I’ll never keep up.
I can totally relate to this post. I had a schedule once upon a time, then Thanksgiving hit and we’re trying to get back on!
I hear ya! I hear ya! And “pecking” is quite the appropriate word for our current state. I am going to work on an hour-by-hour schedule this week!
I am a terrible scheduler–perhaps the half-hour increments would help me too