I’m sure I’ll get a collective eye roll from the seasoned mothers round here as my two years of experience is impressively lacking. But where else but thee old internet can you chime in with your best and brightest ideas? I’m hoping to share a few additional nuggets of wisdom saving my sanity on the daily.
If you should ever find yourself outside our home in the hours between 5 and 7 pm I would not blame you for calling CPS based on the sheer volume of the shrieking within our walls. These are consistently our worst hours between getting everyone fed, bathed, read to and in bed. I swear the clock strikes 5 and the kids ramp up the crazy. Every single dang day. Matt works late hours (sob, sob) so I’m doing the bedtime/bathtime rodeo solo. The one thing that has been a serious game changer is bathing the kids before dinner. I don’t remember why I chanced into this but guys. DO it! The kids love splashing around while I get dinner ready (worry warts-I can hear them and we’re all on the same floor so no one is drowning on my watch). Then it’s pjs and then we do dinner.
I know you all are thinking, aren’t they getting filthy at dinner negating the whole bath? Nope. I just wipe faces and hands and it’s totally fine. If we’re having something super messy I usually have them eat with pj tops off so I can hose them down a little more thoroughly.
It saves my sanity when the kids are taking a sweet forever to eat because I can just cut out an extra book reading like a mean mom to keep us at that glorious 7 pm bedtime. We’re not pushing the whole song and dance 30 minutes later. Because I seriously live for 7 pm.
That’s it. Saving my sanity is getting the kids in the tub before dinner. Any other tips to keep the crazies in check?