We've recently changed a long held home system in our house. For a good portion of the last ten years we've eaten tea (dinner) at about 5.30 and bathed the boys after dinner, then cleaned teeth, done devotions, pray and sung and turned the light out at 7.30. This worked well for a long time, but it hasn't been working very well lately. Now they are older we've added a small chore (vacuum dining room) after dinner for one child (this duty rotates). Also we have one child who seems to slooooow dooooown once he has food in his tum. Occasionally he also chooses to sit for lengthy periods on the toilet right after dinner too. We've expended a lot of energy trying to get them into bed. And a lot of angst. It had become awful.
So we decided to do something simple. We've switched showers and tea (dinner) for the younger two. This is possible because they are older and require slightly less supervision in the shower. And because David is home slightly earlier from school, so he can supervise showers so I can still be making dinner. So far it has been working really well most days.
How about you? Have you sometime "sharpened up your home systems" with a dramatic improvement? We'd love to hear your story.
2 comments:
We don't have to fit kids in anymore. Just the two of us coming and going. A couple of years ago we discovered that we kept missing out on buying things we needed. So now we leave a sheet of paper and pen on the corner of the kitchen bench. Anyone can add a missing item and whoever ends up doing the shopping just takes the list with them.
This works because we each notice different things running out and needing replacement. By writing it straight on the list it saves wondering who is actually in charge of the shopping and needs to be told somthing. Also at our age memory lasts but a little time. Easier to write a note than wait to see the other and wonder what it was you wanted to tell them.
Since no one is in charge of the shopping I guess you would call it a distributed system.
That is definitely a system Ken. There is nothing worse than running out of stuff at the wrong time, toilet paper, for instance. We have a list on the fridge with that same function, as our bench space is limited. Even the kids add to it at times (and they aren't naive enough to add things that they know I won't buy).
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