The Busy Life of a Single Mom

Ok. After a week of deliberation and trying to decide how we would handle the spring (and in essence the next several years), I think I’ve found a solution. Really all it took was sitting and looking at a calendar.  If anyone else is in a similar situation, maybe my solution can help you too.

I sat down and insisted that in most cases, we must be home at least 3 afternoons a week (after school) by 5:30.  This means we’re home in time for dinner, homework, and a little family/down time. In addition, one of the weekend days must have at least 6 hours dedicated to family time.  After laying down the ground rules, we sat down with a calendar and planned.

As it turns out, the daughter’s spring events all have practice on Tuesday/Thursday  (and games on Tuesdays and Saturday (with few exceptions). I messed around with my schedule and was able to move all tutorials/extracurricular practices to Mondays and Wednesdays and will end them at 5:00 so that we are home on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays by 5:30.

So basically our new schedule has the potential for doing lots of running and being out later on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and my calendar is free so I can do the running and not ask others to take them to everything), but we will be home on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays together at a reasonable time. We’ll also be planning at least one activity (even if it’s laying around watching movies/tv) a weekend so that we take at least a few hours to slow down and enjoy each other.

Perfect solution? Most certainly not, but I think it’s a better one than what we have had previously.  I talked to the girls (in fear that I was pushing them into these various activities and causing all of this) and found that they do enjoy and want to parcipate in a wide variety of activities.  We really couldn’t pick any to remove so this is what we’ll try for now.  I’ll be sure to post how it goes.