The Cost of Quiet Time
How much does quiet cost?
I am so excited that school has opened it's beautiful doors once again for my precious children. Or maybe I should say, "Yippee, school has started, hello quiet house!!!!" I think you get my point here. But what is the going rate of quiet these days??? I will try and clear this up for everyone with children in elementary school. Here goes....
The alarms are now set in the kids rooms for 7:30 a.m. The kids wake-up, make their beds, and come down stairs to have breakfast. They get dressed after their breakfast is done, I do my daughter's hair, and they get their socks and shoes on. But wait, it is only 8:00, we still have another 30 minutes before leavingfor school. As the minutes tic by so does the quiet. I am pacing back and forth trying in my mind to speed up the time. (note to self, this does not work!!!) My 2 year old is still sleeping and I would really like to keep it that way. So as the other 3 are slowingraisingtheir volume, I am running about gathering up their items to take to school, book-bags, etc. As they are laughing, I am ssshhhh-ing. This goes on for ever. My fiance just thinks I am crazy because they don't even hear me. So between 8 and 8:30 all you can hear in my home is, (kids) "hahaha, blah, blah, hahahaha", and (me) "sssshhhhhhhh, keep it down, sssshhhhh". I finally see my fiance grab his keys, so deep inside I am cheering as I say, "OK kids, see you later, have a good day at school, I love you", then I open the door and send them out. YES!!!! My quiet time has arrived!!! Now I have until about 9:15 with no kids. I just sit and relax for my 45 minutes.
My 2 year old is up a little after 9. He now comes downstairs, eats breakfast, and watches one of his favorite shows. There is no screaming, crying, or fighting going on. He doesn't even carry on himself. (During the summer months the other kids would torture him and make him cry and scream all day) Now it is just me and him and quiet happy times. We get so much accomplished. The house gets straightened up, the laundry gets sorted, the dishes put away, and I can even happily drive to the grocery store or run and do any errand without the fear of the unknown. Life is great between the hours of 8:30 and 3:30. I do miss the other kids though!! I hope their day is going well, hope they are paying attention, and I hope they found the notes I left them in their book-bags telling them I love them!!!
Well sure enough 3:30 comes by in what felt like an hour. How can 7 hours pass faster than 30 minutes??? So off to the bus the two of us go to sit and wait for the other three. The buses are running late because they are not yet on schedule. So it is now pushing 4:00, does the bus driver know I have to be home to meet my 6 year olds home teacher, get supper on the stove, and get our 9 year old son ready for football pictures? I then think to myself, I hope they don't have much homework, being school just started. The bus finally pulls in and 3 excited kids run towards me all telling me about their day at the same time!!! I had years of practice at this so I can listen to all 3 at once, my only problem is answering them at the same time. (getting better though) We get in the van, drive home, and enter the quiet house.
We gather in the kitchen at the table. The two 9 year olds inform me of the list of homework they have, and also hand me a pile of papers that need to be filled out by tomorrow. Yes, just what I wanted, my own homework!!! I send the kids upstairs to change. As they come back down to start their work my 6 year old's teacher arrives. It is 4:20 so he will not have to sit with her the whole hour. Should go great, right? Wrong. As soon as he hears the knock at the door he is sprinting for the stairs. I cut him off at the gate and stop him from going up. I am struggling with him knowing my fiance will be home any minute and he could help keep him in the parlor while I start supper. He comes in from work, my son is working with his teacher, the other two are doing homework, and my 2 year old is just watching everyone and talking to his dad. My potatos are peeled and I am shake-n-baking my chicken when my quiet just happens to fly past me right out of the kitchen window. I see my son (6) running up the stairs. Oh no, it is to late, I lost him now!! My fiance goes to get him but can't find him. I get my chicken in the oven, I walk up to his room, I look over the rail of his top bunk but he is not there. But I know better to assume this, I touch his bed and sure enough he has himself as flat as a pancake under his cover. I "nicely" tell him to come downstairs and finish his lesson", also I say, "If you do not come downstairs you will not be left out to play today". I come downstairs alone. He comes down as the teacher is leaving but it was too late. So it started. The tantrum that could only be performed by him. He is not even a child when he throws these tantrums, he is more like a monster, a strong monster. The screaming is ear piercing, there are items flying through the air at 100 mph, and I think I just saw his head spin around. I calmly say "Go back up to your room and take a break, just calm down and you can come downstairs with us". This angered him more, so he decided to flip the toy box over. I just sat and tried to ignore him, then the timer for supper was beeping.
I got supper served, everyone ate well (including the monster), and the race was on for football pictures. My fiance handled the pictures while I checked homework and cleaned up after supper. My monster finally turned back into my 6 year old and he picked up the mess he threw all over the parlor. I began my homework but could not finish. Now the 2 and 6 year olds are running through the house, jumping off the furniture, and wrestling each other on the ground. Here I am again, "Stop, stop it, can you hear me? I said stop, put the pillows back on the couch, stop jumping", my fiance comes in, and I say "Tag your it". His turn finally. The only problem is he can't make them stop either. I look at the clock it has to be 9, but it is only 7:30. Bedtime can't come soon enough, it has to be 9 o'clock somewhere, right?
The loudness and complete crazyiness goes on for another hour and finally we are closing in on bedtime. It is 8:30, time for a bowl of cereal, get a drink, go to the bathroom, and brush your teeth. We survived!! We go upstairs to tuck in the bigger three and then we start to get the last one ready for bed. All goes well with him and he is in bed by 9:45. Finally quiet!! Just the sound of nothing sounds so good. I guess in 10 more hours I will start again.
So for me quiet costs 1 hour of loud kids in the morning, 1 tantrum that could last forever, 2 hours of doing and checking homework, rushing to make supper, and 1 complete hour of mayhem before bed. I guess that is pretty reasonable, but I would like a better deal. Are there any specials on quiet this week, I mean year???