Peace and quiet are two of my best friends.
Since our daughters are twelve and ten, I will admit to seeing more of those two friends these days than I did when they were younger. But since I treasure them so much, some of the best advice I could share with young moms is to have daily quiet time for yourself and your children.
One of my priorities when I had our second daughter was to get both girls on the same nap schedule. Feedings could be rearranged and errands could wait as long as I could get the two girls down for a nap around the same time. That usually meant I had at least an hour of quiet time. (No, it didn’t always work out that way, but at least it was a goal and happened more often than not.) Our daughters are two years apart and while I was thankful to be at home with them, I needed the break. Sometimes I’d try to get housework done; other times I’d just sit and relax.
When they reached preschool age and weren’t taking naps as frequently, we still had quiet time. After lunch and a brief playtime, I’d read aloud and then settle them on their beds with picture books. They learned that they had to stay in their rooms until “rest time” was over.
Even now, in these homeschooling years, we tend to do separate things in the period after lunch. Their mornings are spent on school work while I take care of housecleaning, laundry, or other chores. While the girls finish up lunch, I read aloud to them. After that, I take some time to read for pleasure or just rest, while they go off to entertain themselves before we start our afternoon schedule.
Do you have a “quiet” time in your house? How do you manage to pull it off?
Quiet, uummmmmm is there such a thing as quiet lol
Well, I guess it's a relative thing!! Does a dull roar count? 😉
We don't during the school year, but during summer vacay & long school breaks, I often say "Quiet Hour" & they have to read or do something screen/technology-free before we're out running around on the go, again. Mine are 1st & 3rd grade now, and I honestly don't think this would have worked *for us* before this last summer; but it did then, and now I love it! 🙂
We still do quiet time 🙂 Bella takes a nap {although she is starting to give it up} and Sophie has quiet time on the couch every day after lunch. It's a sanity check for me, really and I think it's very good for them!
I agree! I think it's nice for the three of us to each have a little time to ourselves!
We don't have quiet time, but we do have playtime. It's an hour when the older three (now that Rachel's not napping anymore) go down into the playroom to play while Mary naps. With three of them, it's not usually quiet down there, but it is in the rest of the house which is what I need. Maybe when they're older, I will split them up, but right now I can't…not enough rooms in the house!
Sounds like you've made a great plan to have time to yourself – which is the goal, after all! 🙂