Grand plans

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Last year we did too much.  We had no day of the week that we weren't up early, with someone rushing out the house for something or another.  We felt tired and we had no energy to hang out with our kids.  We'd just plonk the TV on after dinner and watch some reality show together.  It wasn't terrible and often quite fun, but we didn't spend much time talking to each other or reading together.

Now that I'm working and get home late two nights a week, and Rowan has two or three nights out every week with regular commitments and Aidan will have youth group one night a week, we are only left with one night a week that we can actually connect properly.

It means that every day is looking full and we just need to slow down.  We feel more and more disconnected from each other when school term is on and this is not why we had a family.

So we're thinking about cutting out Saturday sport.  The early Saturday mornings in winter, going in two different directions almost killed us.  It feels unAustralian to cull sport but they will still be able to play competitive sport in school teams.  We're thinking of using the time to all go to the pool together so that the younger two kids can finally get swimming lessons.

And I'm thinking that we're going to pretty much ban screen time during the school terms - including the weekends -  (for the kids and ourselves) so that we regain that time and I go to bed earlier.  I just need more sleep.  Wish I could operate on 4 hours a night, but I can't.

It's still going to be insanely busy (we only have about three free nights in February) but we have to be ruthless to protect our family time.

I'm quite fond of the old TV, so I'll let you know how I go, but I suspect I won't miss it too much once we get out of the habit.

Grand plans ...

Comments

Karen said…
Please keep us posted on how you go with that, Jenny! It sounds great though.
We don't do weekend sport here (although I have been eyeing off a Friday evening touch football competition for later in the year) but we do do swimming lessons one afternoon each week (#1 in a swim training squad, #2 in learn to swim class) and that seems to work quite well. It has in the past been a great opportunity to read books too....not so much now that I have a toddler again, but soon enough she will be learning to swim and then my reading hour will return!
January 31, 2011 at 6:19 PM
Sandra said…
Our problem is we really, really need sport and lots of it - high activity children who were not nice as toddlers if they weren't kept active, and are just as not nice as teenagers- grumpy, don't sleep and even more fidgetty than normalwithout a regular 'fix'.
Roll on the hockey season.
January 31, 2011 at 9:35 PM
Jenny K said…
Wow 2 comments on 2 posts - We just laid down the rules again about screen time for this year. Actually it is supposed to all the time during the school year but it got pretty slack (ok I got pretty slack) at the end of last year and over the holidays (don't even go there!!)

So we have said 1/2 of non-related screen time per day. If they want to watch a 1 hour show they will have to bank time beforehand. Yesterday (first day back) went well. They are all reading a couple of series at the moment so that helps!
February 1, 2011 at 11:16 AM
Jenny K said…
Oops that should say non-school related...
February 1, 2011 at 11:17 AM
michael and karen said…
Jenny - we don't do Sat sport anymore - it has been a great decision for our family, esp because Michael works all day Sunday. We too felt the need to reclaim some time, just to hang out/read together/play games/visit friends/go to the beach etc. None of our boys have missed it!
February 1, 2011 at 10:28 PM
Motherhugger said…
But, but, Jen. What about MAD MEN?!?!?
February 1, 2011 at 11:19 PM
Jo said…
We canned Sat sport this summer too, best thing we ever did. I think we need to ban screen time during the week too, it sucks up so much time and makes me feel disconnected from the kids, which makes me lament the fact that I don't homeschool...lol.
February 6, 2011 at 9:44 PM
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