As moms, we have a want to expose our kids to as many things as possible while they are young. And that’s not a bad thing! But if you are feeling overwhelmed with the weekday afterschool activities, could your child feel overwhelmed too?

Prior to family-life, I stayed rather active during the work week. I had my 9-to-5 job, went to my Jazzercise class 2 or 3 times a week, got caught up with all my recorded shows on the DVR, and occasionally met up with friends for happy hour.. Oh those were the days!

I’m older now and to say that my energy level isn’t what it used to be is stating the obvious. But for this introvert, having a 9 to 5 job in an office environment and having a family means the amount of time I need alone to recharge is not as abundant as it once was. I enjoy both my job and my family very much, but at the end of the day my mind is jelly, my energy is zapped, and I’m ready to go to sleep before news anchors have finished putting on their makeup for the 10pm news.

Sound familiar?

One day, I noticed how my son seemed really irritable. Yes, the irritability itself happens on a regular basis with young kids, but this time it was different. My happy-go-lucky son that was all smiles and excitement when I picked him up suddenly turned into the crankiest, unhappiest kid in the universe in an instant! I thought he’d be excited about the trip to Chick-fil-A (one of the few things this kid will eat) for dinner, but nope. It was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a second. And it was that way for the rest of the night

I began to take notice of these outbursts and thought to myself “Hmm…what if my son is an introvert just like me?” He may have more energy being a kid, but that doesn’t mean he might need some alone time too. Going to school, the after school program, Tae Kwon Do, swimming lessons, and errands with mom – I noticed it was starting to wear on him as it had on me.

Although I want my son to be exposed to all the wonderful things in life, I learned that he needs downtime where it is just him playing with his toys just like I need time to do something mindless like watch TV or work on the latest logic puzzle.

So, here are three things we’ve implemented in our home to make things a little easier on all of us and give ourselves a little break:

No events on Mondays night

Getting the week started after a weekend can be stressful at times. School schedules, traffic, and getting back on track can lead to Manic Mondays (cue in the song from The Bangles). Not having any events on Monday evenings have really helped with relaxing after getting home from school and work. My 9 to 5 job and my role on a school board means there are some Monday evenings that I have to give up, but for my son it is time for him to do a little homework, unwind, and have free time playing with his toys. How much calmer Mondays have become! AND the rest of the week is a little less daunting.

I’m sure there will be a time where we might have to give this up if one of my son’s interests requires it, but if and when that happens, it will be because it is a change needed for my son to continue something he wants to do and there will be at least one other day of the week that nothing is scheduled. But for now, Monday’s seem to be the best day of the week.

Get it done “now”

I used to be a major procrastinator, but I figured out that it was more stressful and exhausting to “do it later” rather than “do it now”. This includes waiting until the next day to wash dishes (in my ancient house, we have no automatic dishwasher), prepping school lunches, and anything else I feel I can put off. The next day I was left wondering “why didn’t I do that last night” and being a rush to zoom out the door without being late for school drop-off.

Not only am I an introvert, but for those of you who are familiar with Myers-Briggs, I am an ISTJ which means I don’t do well living in chaos. And guess what? My husband and son don’t do well with me living in chaos either! So, taking the time to get everything done that I can in preparation for the next day allows to me go to sleep knowing I have things ready for tomorrow and I won’t stress myself and my son out in the morning before we head out the door.

I’ve also started using my “do it now” motto with my son. Homework gets done either immediately before or after dinner. Clothes gets picked up off the floor before bedtime. PJs are on and teeth brushed before he gets his extra minutes of extra time. (I’ll explain what “extra time” for my son is in a future blog.) He may get a little cranky when I tell him to do something now instead of playing with his toys, but he’ll understand as he gets older, at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

“Me” Time

This is so important! When I am getting things done now, it is hard to find the time to focus on yourself and to do what you want without any interruptions from others. So, I have to adjust my time to get it in. As I mentioned before, my mind turns to mush in the evening. Part of it is because I’m a morning person, but also I use a lot of brain cells at work. So for me “Grace” Time begins around 4:30am where I make my Spark energy drink (since I’m not a coffee gal), get in my daily devotional reading, keep my streak of Wordle going, or catching up on the latest episode of “The Amazing Race” or “Master Chef”. Everyone in the home knows that mom is not available until at least 6:30am, if they want me to be happy of course. That’s a whole 2 hours for just me, myself, and I. Hooray!

After a long day, my son likes to do things by himself. This includes watching Jurassic Park dinosaurs battling each other on YouTube, reenacting said dinosaurs battling each other with his toy dinosaurs or toy cars (yes, Lightning McQueen sometimes doubles as a T. Rex), or playing in the tub with said dinosaurs battling with each other. It makes things so much easier when it is time for him to get ready for bed, and don’t we all love it when things are peaceful before bedtime?

So there it is, three of the ways we’ve been able to take breaks and get in some personal time to recharge ourselves. It has made things easier in our household and the days feel less stressful. My blood pressure will still shoot up from time to time during my commute to and from work or if something unexpected happens at home, but at least I know I’ve got a handle on the things I can control and there will be time to decompress. And that, my friends, is a big win.