It is Sunday evening and preparation has begun for the next week. After Laundry, dinner, and a last minute pickup before the kids’ go to bed the mom guilt kicks in. Moms’ bedtime begins and in about about 12 hours the rat race starts again. As a mom, the bedtime routine on Sunday night is when I start to reflect the week. The week’s busy events go through my mind and the mom guilt starts to creep in. One on one time is so important for kids that they will begin to show it in their behavior. I am as guilty as the rest about fitting in one on one time with each of my children.
Time is a flash of events the older we get. My hope is to have less of mom guilt and more contentment that I put them first in this season of life.
Set Specific Minutes to Spend In a Learning Environment
Our family has a very busy schedule. Homeschooling does not make us any less busy. Working with more than one child causes me to be more creative when I start experiencing mom guilt due to lack of time.
A few of My Strategies to End Mom Guilt Are:
Set 15 min. per subject aside to work individually with each child. For those who do not homeschool, sitting down during homework time to show interest and answer questions. My fourth grader does not need as much time as my first grader, but I sit with him during this time so he knows that is his time to ask questions if needed.
Make a game out of one subject. Even if it is hangman with a math vocabulary word. School work is serious and sometimes intense. Making the learning more fun and less intense releases some mom guilt. When the mom guilt starts to kick in, reminiscing about the fun game and laughter frees’ a mom to know they don’t always have to be serious.
Making pancakes is ALWAYS fun. Even a toddler will have fun trying to learn to flip a pancake. It is a special time to teach, love, and laugh with each child as they take their turn at flipping.
Recreate Memories of Childhood:
If your like me, I know you have some good and bad memories of childhood. Don’t recreate the bad obviously, but do learn and grow from the experience.
DO recreate the good. One special memory from my childhood is how our family always played UNO together. No set nights, just if we had a few minutes, or company came over my mom grabbed the UNO cards.
Playing a special one on one game of tic tac toe or checkers eliminates mom guilt. Mom has spent time….quality, not quantity time with her child. If each child gets one game that counts as time spent. 45 minutes later…Poof! mom guilt gone.
Check The Family Schedule:
Looking ahead each week to see what errands, classes, and activities are involved gives perspective into the week. Use this time to highlight a special time with a certain child. My six year old wrestles. Every Tuesday he knows that I am going to sit at his our practice and watch him. He is so cute and smart that now he will ask me what moves he worked on. Obviously, I can’t answer correctly if I am on my phone and that is his way of telling me to keep my eyes on him.
This is a way that I rotate children, spend time with them, and rid myself of mom guilt. During a practice I am listening to what they coach is saying so that later we can talk about what they learned or or having trouble conquering.
Mom Guilt Is A Part Of Life
A fact of life is the moms’ carry a lot of responsibility. Whether it is working in the home, out of the home, homeschooling, raising a large family, or just being a mom. I have so many memories of special time that I spent with my first one, and now I have to be creative with my one on one memories because their are four of them.
Running a house is a priority. Teaching our children to prioritize responsibilities and run a house is important. Creating memories is important. If moms’ can hit the goal 3 out of 5 days , then when some mom guilt kicks in we can pat ourselves on the back. Moms are human. We can only do so much.
Mom guilt will vanish if we as moms’ realize that we can not do it all and just the basics show our children how much we love them.
If you have any creative ways to spend individual time with children please leave them in the comments.
Cheers,
Michelle
Leave a Reply