Good Friday? I think not.

Happy Easter!!

We are only a quarter through the long Easter weekend and man, I don't think we are going to survive.  At least I am not.  I am currently trying to enforce  my latest parental decision--nap time.

We spent last evening at a friends house dying Easter eggs and eating candy and pizza.  We got home had baths and straight to bed.  It was an awesome evening--no fuss no muss.  As always however, the lateness of bedtime is  inversely proportionate to wake up time----the later the bedtime, the earlier the wake up time.  So now I have children who were up late and up early. In others words, a perfect storm brewing.  I tried to stop the escalation but I can no more stop this then I can stop a tornado.  Time to run and take cover.

I am trying to use that old sanity saver, nap/quiet time. It never works for us. Interestingly enough, we are not too bad at bedtime.  When it is time for bed my kids go, and if they fuss, cry, or otherwise call out or get up to the bathroom multiple times then the next nights bedtime is moved up by 30 min--and yes I have put my kids to bed at 6pm.  Its a good strategy and I feel logical consequence to their actions, but once again their consequences mean I have to do more work.  I have dinner ready by five, or skip bath time or not go for an after dinner walk.  In short, its a heck of a lot of work just to enforce some "logical' consequences.

Today's debacle started around lunch time.  Tired, hungry, whine-y, bored children do not make good company.  Tempers flared and tantrums ensued when my children left the table--something I have told them a thousand times not to do--before they were finished their lunch and the dog jumped up on the table and ate their food.  There were many tears and a belch from the dog.  Not to be left out, my six month old decided she also needed to scream at the top of her lungs because the other two were doing it.  I lost it and sent everyone to their rooms for a nap/quiet time.

The very mention of the words room, nap quiet time are enough to cause major meltdowns from my older children.  They refused to go to their room. First they lost a star, then a marble and then the big guns-- I started throwing out their stuff.  On the plus side, my house is somewhat cleaner because the toys that were laying around are in the garbage.  And yes, they are actually in the garbage not coming back.  Its my last resort.  I no longer yell at them to get to their rooms, I just go around with a garbage bag and throw out stuff until they are in their rooms and quiet (Don't feel too sorry though, most of what I threw out we had duplicates of anyway, but they don't know that.) Finally they settled and we all agreed that they would stay in their rooms for an hour.  Except....

My son needed to go the bathroom.  Fine. First time--he gets to go, no talking to anyone then straight back to his room.  Second time, he can go but the minutes he spends in the bathroom get added to the hour he was supposed to spend in his room.  My almost three year old daughter during this time was busy destroying her room.  She emptied her closet, dumped her toys.  My baby has been crying and fussing this whole time as well, because the other two's tantrums woke her up.  I have spent the last hour policing the children (well and writing this so I guess its not all bad).

Now the hour is up and what did I gain?  Certainly not well rested children.  Another room I have to clean, a messy kitchen and a fussy baby. My kids could not even find the time during all that not napping to get dressed so we can't even go outside.  Not really sure what my next move is going to be. Now I have to spend the afternoon cleaning my girl's bedroom (or at least making sure she cleans it) and plotting my revenge.  Perhaps another six pm bedtime.................

Good Friday?  I don't see what is so good about it.