So far, so good

So, I’m part way into my first ever three week winter break with no child care. So far, it’s not too bad. Honestly, not having to get up early and hustle kids through a morning routine is awesome enough that it’s actually worth then having kids around all day. The one negative is I haven’t figured out how to consistently exercise. I plan on hitting up the Y with their free child care a couple of days - but what I really want is to go on long hikes. Bobby could hang - but Theo would make me carry him after about five minutes. An excellent work out, perhaps, but not exactly what I had in mind. 

Today while the kids assembled LEGO sets, read, played on iPads, played with kiddie smart watches, and did bey blade battles, I knitted Theo a hat that I improvised:

I also made some lemon juice ice cubes, juiced every orange from our tree, took down and put away all the Christmas decorations, did laundry, fixed my non-working texting on my phone, sorted and stored new toys so they weren’t covering the floor in a sea of sharp nightmares, collapsed endless boxes, took out several bags of garbage, and generally tidied, all to avoid the real work of the moment which is completely updating my event website for next year. Fuck it, I’ll do it tomorrow.

Although we’ve had a mostly conflict-free Christmas, I definitely see how kids are not themselves on holidays. I keep reading reports of crying mothers, children sent to their rooms and presents threatened with being tossed in the garbage. It’s funny because as a kid I have no memory of holiday conflict; but maybe my mother was a boiling cauldron of rage and just hid it well...? Also, she was dealing with one compliant little girl and her much older sister, not two rambunctious boys close in age. Those two parenting experiences aren’t even remotely similar. Managing these two boys’ insane amount of energy is 99% of what I don’t like about motherhood and is 100% of the reason I need to take my breaks when I can. 

On my list for next year is stemming the massive tsunami of plastic crap. The BF as always went nuts and spent thousands of dollars on an insane amount of toys, most of which will be forgotten and abandoned within a week, which I then have to find a way to “manage” (ie dispose of in the least environmentally offensive way possible). I realize he’s a compulsive shopper and probably still feels the need to buy affection from them...but I’m really going to try to put my foot down next year. I’m going to try to set a limit - going with the four gift rule: “something to wear, something to read, something they want, something they need”. Can I stick to this...? I don’t know...but I’m terrified of raising spoiled, entitled kids who think money grows on trees and don’t appreciate anything. I’m going to try a “please no gifts” policy for their birthday - or maybe think of something small everyone can bring, or a donation to a charity, or something else. I plan on having a big dual birthday party again and the thought of sorting through hundreds of pieces of cheap plastic crap again positively makes me cringe. There’s got to be a better way.