Loving a Schedule Change

You know what I realized the other day? That the older your children get the more time they spend away from you and the more time you spend carting them around. I don’t even have teenagers yet and I feel overwhelmed some days with my oldest child’s schedule! She has soccer, Girl Scouts, School and who knows what else will come up during the year.

I am sure the age she is at, almost 8, means she will start having “real friends” that want to come over and play or have her over for a play date, which means meeting more parents and being introduced to other parents. I love the idea of sleep overs and play dates. I enjoy having the laughter of children in my home, always have been a kid type of person. Loved babysitting, that’s why I knew when I became a mother I would be that kind of mother. You know, the one that loves being a Mommy, the stereotypical “soccer mom” that has all the kids around all the time, has a smile on her face and seems to have more energy than you can even imagine for yourself?!

That is totally ME and I love it! My two sons are a bowl full of energy so when we are waiting for my oldest to get out of school, we have to play constantly until she gets out to keep the boys entertained, or else they may wonder off on me. We play racing, we play follow the leader, we laugh, we give high fives, we talk about our days in a fun way. It’s funny to look over and see all these other parents are staring at me being obnoxious, but polite, and smiling with my two sons while waiting for their sister to get out of school. I often wonder what thoughts are going through their heads, usually they will say something to me like “where do you get the energy?” and I simply reply “it’s my job, I don’t always have energy but I go with the flow because if I didn’t, all heck would break loose”.

We are parents, we chose to have children and so I am loving a schedule change, even if it means later hours working, longer days and more coffee! So how do you feel now that it’s back to school time? What do you do to entertain your younger child while the older child is at school?