Single Parenting

While my husband is out of town right now, I'm running the household on my own, and so far I think I'm doing a pretty good job! Every evening I challenge myself to get one good thing done, like clean a bathroom (last night), or a load of laundry (tonight), as well as the standard of feeding the kids a healthy dinner and finding time for baths when needed, etc. There's less down time for me, of course, but the sense of accomplishment is pretty fantastic. Plus, I'm not shy about rewarding me with some totally lazy behavior at the end of the night. Last night's laziness included:

Sitting on my bed
Facebooking on the laptop
Watching a SATC rerun
Eating a Snickers ice cream bar

All at the same time! Yes...I can multi-task.

Somehow I've got to add in a few other things tonight, such as Charlie's book report that's due on Thursday and is not even started almost finished! And a trip to Payless is in the cards thanks to all the tears he's produced about his shoes being too tight. Rick says they were too big when he bought them, but we all know how kids can hit a growth spurt and bust right out of things. I tried to find a picture of the Hulk busting out of his shoes to insert here, but no such luck.

One thing I'm particularly proud of is how I'm learning to work with Charlie's morning grumpiness. This child, when woken up, has the most unhappy demeanor I've ever seen in my 33 years. Instead, I've taken a less aggressive approach to how he wakes up.

This morning I started with going in his room and putting out clothes for him to wear. (He usually picks his own, but this gets him out of his deep sleep.) Then I leave the door open and go turn the TV on to listen to the news while I make our lunches. By the time I go back in, he's woken up "on his own" and isn't quite the monster he would have been if I've shaken him awake. After that it's all about the baby steps of getting ready. One thing at a time with a little break in between leads to a lot less arguing. We actually managed to get out the door today with very little difficulty, and I call that a success.

If only I could have as much luck with the book report!