Taking Turns

Multi-tasking is overrated.  Especially when it comes to children.  During this past school year, as I have tried to help multiple children with their homework at the same time, oversee everyone doing their chores at once, and do a collective bedtime routine, I have finally come to a huge realization: there just isn't enough of me to go around.  The girls are always clamoring for my attention and no one ever seems to get enough.  With another deployment looming in the near future, I was very nervous as to how I was going to give everyone the attention they needed, along with meeting all the extra emotional needs that come when Daddy is gone, for an extended amount of time.  Then one day inspiration hit - Taking Turns!  I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out, but it has made life much easier, and I don't feel torn in so many different directions at once.

For the last month of school, when the kids got off the bus I would give each child 1/2 an hour of my undivided attention to work on their homework, while the other child would get a snack, make their lunch, and play with their younger sisters (thereby ensuring that I actually could give my full attention to the child working on their homework.)  This resolved so much frustration on all sides - me, because I didn't feel like the girls were slacking the moment I turned my attention to someone else, and the girls, because they didn't feel like they were being neglected and wasting time while I helped somebody else.

Also, instead of trying to have all the girls help me with dinner, laundry, etc. at once, which would seem to spawn arguments over who had the easiest jobs, etc., I now try to take turns having one girl help me at a time.  I find that in many situations  I enjoy people more in a one-on-one setting, and this seems to be the case with my children as well.  It is much more enjoyable for me, and hopefully for them as well. (In a sidenote: the above picture is of the pulley system Aly created to "save time" in cleaning up so that the girls wouldn't have to climb the stairs to put their toys away.  Love the creativity.  I've got some inventors on my hands!)

And finally, at bedtime, after a quick family story, the girls take turns on whose night it is for me to come snuggle with them in their bed and read them another story.  This is my favorite by far.  I love that Aly, at 10 years old, still loves to be read to (how much longer is that going to last?!?), even though her books are so big now that I can only read a chapter, rather than a whole book.  I love snuggling with Lise, who has so many interesting things she wants to know and talk about, but is hardly able to get a word in edgewise all day with her chatty sisters.  I love laying in Kate's bed with her, even though her snuggle is more like a death grip.  But the excitement on her face when it's her turn just makes my heart melt.  And Kylie . . . well, Kylie doesn't exactly get a turn yet because she's still in her crib, but, as the youngest, she gets plenty of one-on-one time during the day, and I especially love that she still wants me to rock her in the rocking chair when she drinks her milk in the morning.  

An added bonus to all of this one-on-one time is the opportunity I have to connect with my children and  find out what's going on in their lives and how they are feeling about life.  That is invaluable to me.  I am so grateful for the inspiration of the Spirit.  I know that Heavenly Father is aware of the needs of our family and that He hears and answers the prayers of a mother who is doing her best, however imperfect it may be.  I know He loves me and my girls - His Daughters - and that He will give me the extra wisdom and help I need in raising them.  In this I put my trust.