Sacrifice Realized

Don't you just hate it when people tell you they're going to do something and then fail to follow up with the end results? I wouldn't do you that way now would I?

Okay, maybe I did.

For quite some time I've been intending to report on the fallout that came from a crazy decision I made back in April.  A decision that involved banning my kids from all forms of media during the school week. (Click here if you would like to see what led up to this insane idea of mine!)

To be honest, I figured it wouldn't be easy. My kids didn't like the new restrictions, so there would be resistance. I expected to hear a lot of "I'm bored." I expected that I'd have to supply some alternatives. Like smokers trying to quit the habit. Giving them chewing gum and things to do to fill in the time they'd normally spend on cigarette breaks. Kids smoking, what a terrible image that brings to mind.  Hmmm...well anyway, you get the idea.

But what I wasn't prepared for was this: they kept showing up by my computer desk, wanting to...TALK TO ME!...(gasp!!!)

What the?!?

Okay, so at first this totally unnerved me. What were they doing there? I mean really? Usually I had to chase them down for a conversation and this so called conversation at best consisted of one or two word answers. They were always too busy for me.

Well guess what? They weren't busy now. After my initial shock wore off, I realized that they suddenly had all kinds of time on their hands and they wanted to spend some of it with Mama. Whoot! It was great. I turned away from my computer and listened intently, answered their questions-yes, they actually asked me questions, they wanted my take on things. It was both bizarre and wonderful.

But then after a few days, the novelty wore off. I hate to say this but things took a serious turn for the worse. The fighting between siblings reached epoch proportions. The house, oh my goodness, the house. It changed from slightly messy to an official disaster area. Obama came and pronounced it so. (hehe)

And it seemed no matter what activities I lined up, my sweet children were far more interested in remaining on their current path of seek and destroy-whether it be the house or each other, they were determined to get the job done.

Even my thoughts were violated. You might be able to relate to this. You're deep in thought. Maybe while you're changing out laundry, maybe cleaning the toilet, or even sitting at your desk writing a post. You're really getting into it. For myself, it's story ideas. So I've built layer on layer, mentally growing this great story in my head. And then I hear "Mommy, such and such hit me," or "Mom can we look up Black Ops on your computer." (yea right, like that's gonna happen)

My idea flops, splatting back into the grey mass from which it came. Please, please, get out of my head!

Without media to entertain them, I was constantly interrupted and my workload increased ten fold.

A few weeks ago I was considering military school. Do they accept 2 year olds into the program?
Then we'd be talking. Ship all four of them off and give Mommy a reprieve from all this craziness.

Okay, so this was pure fantasy, in reality I would miss them terribly if they weren't here with me.

But the status quo simply wasn't hacking it. Since shipping them off wasn't a viable solution, and I wasn't about to back down on the new media rules, I decided I needed to form new habits as well.  I guess my children weren't the only ones making sacrifices. I began working on story ideas at night after they were all in bed, and tried to make myself more available to them throughout the day.

With work, things have slowly settled down since then, and they have more or less fallen into the swing of things. They're more apt to use their imagination through play, they're reading more, and also helping around the house.

But now summer is here, throwing a wrench in it all!  And of course, my eldest was under the assumption that since school was out for the summer, the media rule was rendered null and void. Not!

I'm determined to avoid a repeat of last time, to stay ahead of my brood. I've gone over the new summer rules, giving a little more ground than I'd like. From 12pm -2pm they may watch TV or play video games. I figure this is a time of the day when it's pretty hot outside anyway, so this will help keep them out of the sun. They also get one movie at bedtime. This way I can easily keep them on the same school routine without any arguing. Like I said, it's more than I like, which is a bummer. But I suppose it's better than them being glued to the TV all day.  :P

So...what are you all doing this summer? Any ideas for keeping the kids busy?

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