Today I have learned that it is important to prepare yourself for the day before the children wake up.

There are days when you seem to wake up and you hit the floor running with all the needs of the children to be met, not to mention deadlines, and a to do list that seems to go on forever.

Today was such a day. I woke up to a child needing some medicine for a headache, so I hopped out of bed half asleep (that teaches me for thinking I could get away with sleeping in on the weekend). After that it was a child needing help with her hair, another child wanting help to make a cardboard robot, and then another child wanting me to hold her the whole time. On top of that I had a few things to organise that had deadlines and a bit of baking to do as well. Oh, did I mention the phone was also ringing during this time? I felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off. “Can I have….”, “Where is….”, “They won’t let me use it….”, “I’m hungry!”. Just as I was in the middle of one thing, I was asked to do another, all the while, I’m thinking about the things I need to get done by a certain time.

Finally I got a breather around 1pm. aaaahhhh.

Here are some tips to help us prepare for those hectic days:

• Is there anything that can be done the night before to help you the next day?
• Go to bed on time.
• Wake up before the kids wake up
• Have some quiet time to yourself
• Write out a plan
• Review what needs to be done that day. Is it too much?
• Can anything be juggled so that you don’t need to do it when the kids are up
• Get dressed so you are ready to face the day
• Make sure you have breakfast, so you have the energy you need
• Plan something fun to do with the kids, or an outing
• Have something to look forward to that is “just for you” – read a mag or a book, paint your toes, have a lie down etc etc

We are the world to our children. They look to us for comfort, for assistance, and for love. It can get hard when it is a constant wave of want want want. But there will come a time when they will not need us as much. We will be going to them to see if they need assistance or comfort, and we will be the ones trying to show them our love (“ewww mum, don’t kiss me in front of the boys”)

We want to teach our children to be self -reliant, to help out, to ask using their manners and that their mother is not there to serve their every whim. This is a gift that will help them become a better member of society.

Just remember to keep your head up, and look out for the precious moments, amongst the tough ones.