SAHM's what are your daily schedules?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
SAHM's what are your daily schedules?
10
Wed, 02-15-2006 - 11:44pm

Hello, I stay home with my kids twins Jordan and Jacob (asd) 2yrs and Autumn, we pretty much have a routine for like lunch and nap but just wondering what you do otherwise. We do have the tv on most of the day but they play and watch, they don't just sit there all day...it's hard to do crafts and stuff with Jacob cause he just wrecks them or tries to eat them...it's nice to see other people's routines!

Thanks!

Keri

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 12:35am

LOL, you really don't want to know. But then again, my kids are getting older now so my routine is much different since they are in school. I just started back to work part time too. But my days are filled with transporting kids to school, volunteering at school, running errands, running to appointments, running to therapies and running to kid activities. My schedule is pretty much determined by outside forces. I take my middle schooler to school for 7ish, the 2 middle ones to elementary for 8:15 and the youngest to Kindie at 9:15, then do it in the opposite order at the end of the day. In between I attempt to do a bit of laundry, clean, run errands, have IEP's, appointments and volunteer at school. I also now work 3 days a week but that just started. After school we have play/social therapy every other monday and thursday, karate monday nights, youth group, was basketball on tuesday but we are free now, hippotherapy (theraputic horseback riding) on wednesday and various PTA meetings and such. Ohhh and of course, homework. The bain of my existance.

I will let other mom's answer this one who's kids are little. When my kids were little I remember trying to take them to parks and such as often as possible but that depends really on the climate where you live at this time of year.

You can try an indoor McD's playland. If you go mid morning usually it is pretty empty. MOst people go for lunch or when thier kids are out of school. When school is out sometimes you can go on the playgrounds at the school. This is nice because they are usually fenced. Big issue for those of us with ASD kids.

When my kids were little my SIL and I knew every place safe and quiet to take the kids (she has ASD son too). We still do and know which parks work best for our kids.

Another idea is the library if they have a reading time perhaps the other little ones can do the reading time while you look at books with Jacob if he will sit for that kind of thing. If not he may enjoy some of the puzzles they have there.

If I remember he is going to start 35 hours or therapy a week soon right? His days will be pretty filled then that is for sure.

As a mom of an ASD kid I don't recall having lots of free time once the diagnosis hit. The kids were in preschool or doing other theraputic things it felt like constantly.

Photobucket
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Registered: 02-20-2001
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 7:58am

Well I have Bobby(3.75) amd Lizzie(22 months).

 


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Avatar for sselwa
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 11:48am

Have you thought about checking into

Susan, mom to Sam 11 and Connor 9
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Registered: 02-24-2004
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 1:15pm

Keri,

Well, both my boys are in school all day now. I usually run my errands, pick up the house, do the shopping, etc. The time goes by fast, I thought once they were in school, I wouldn't be so busy. But this is NOT true. After I pick them up from school, we come home and go thru their backpacks. Then the boys get a snack and head upstairs to chill and watch cartoons. Tyler usually ends up playing his Playstation too. Then it's dinnertime, homework/reading, bath, snack....and then bedtime!!! (And the boys are always playing between all these things!!!) Lots of wrestling, chasing, pillow fights....and sometimes they play cards or other board games.

When the boys were little, we would go to storytime, indoor gyms, or the park. They liked staying home too...especially Nathan. So, our days weren't so busy. I don't like my days being hectic anyway!!! I really stuck to my routine for meals and naps.

As far as arts and craft stuff, I would do this mostly around holiday time. But Tyler loves to do these kinds of things, so he was ALWAYS coloring, writing, drawing, cutting, gluing, painting.....anything!!! Nathan, not so much. Nate does like to play with playdoh and paint on occasion. And he really likes the "Color Wonder" books...prefers to color these than regular coloring books. I usually had to initiate art time with Nathan. I wanted to make sure he had the skills he needed for school too.

I also love to cook....so we make cookies together all the time. Tyler is now able to help more in the kitchen, so he's been doing even more.

michelle

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-19-2005
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 2:27pm

Hi Keri,

My son will be 4 in April and I am mostly a SAHM. I sometimes take small consulting jobs that I can do from my home computer, depending on what else is going on. But I never work more than 5 hrs a week consulting.

I get up at 6 a.m., shower, take care of the dog, eat my breakfast and have some quiet time before Eric gets up at 7 a.m. I get him dressed, breakfast, some morning time OT stuff then we are usually in the car by 8:30 (depends on the day, some days it's earlier) for therapy. We do a 45 min. drive to the Center for ST and OT 2 days a week (3o min. therapy each). Then 45 min. drive home. (On days we don't have ST/OT I do an hour of therapy "homework" usually practicing the things Eric is working on in therapy.)

We have about 30 min. of morning free play time, usually Thomas trains or something he wants to do (our "floortime"), then lunch at 11:00 because Eric's prek (ESE)goes from noon until 3:00 p.m. For lunch I let him watch tv, I know I shouldn't but I do. In the car again at 11:30 to school.

When Eric is in school I work, if I have a job, but most days I go to the gym for an hour. I usually shower there, sometimes have time to do an errand or two before picking up Eric.

After school I usually give him a snack and let him watch a little tv while we do some OTish things again to let him relax and blow off steam. (This is when we do joint compressions, I put on his weighted vest, lots of roughhousing around). My husband is a college prof who usually teaches at night, so he often takes Eric to the park (we live in Florida) for an hour two while I cook dinner.

We have dinner, then bath, then more free play, a book and bed by around 9:30 p.m. One night a week when DH teaches Eric and I have "movie night" where he picks the movie. We make dinner together, Eric loves to help cooking with simple things. I put on pj's too which he finds hilarious and we eat dinner then popcorn and have our "date" night.

Eric does have a gymnastics class for ASD kids on Friday afternoons for an hour (again, it's a 45 min. drive there and back). But that is the only extracurricular thing we do during the week.

On weekends we belong to several kid-oriented museums. Eric's obsessions are trains and the solar system, so we spend a lot of time at the science museum and a local train museum that also has a room set up with model trains to watch and several tables of Thomas trains to play with. It's a great place. We go there almost every weekend.

There is one little girl in our neighborhood who we have fairly regular playdates with. She is about the same age as Eric, but a "little mother" type and good with him. In the summer we tend to spend lots of time at the pool or waterparks.

For my little guy, it's better for us both to keep him busy and he just has to have a certain amount of running around time outside every day.

We SAHM's are a busy bunch, and I only have one child! I don't know how all of you with more than one small child do it! You are amazing to me.

Katherine

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Registered: 10-09-2003
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 4:11pm

I'm kind of with Renee -- you don't want to know!

~ Chelsea
Avatar for manda28
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 4:49pm

My son Aaron, 5, PDD-NOS has been in preschool or mother's day out since he was 2 yrs old. Back then he had school two days per week and speech and family education therapy about twice weekly at home. Other days we went to the store or indoor playground.

Now I also have a 2 yr old daughter. On Mondays both kids are in school till 12. We come home, eat lunch quickly, and head to speech at 1pm. Back at home my daughter naps and Aaron rests with his music headphones for an hour or so. Then he gets up and has a snack. After they're both up they might watch tv or play Legos. Aaron's obsession is probably art stuff. He cuts, pastes, paints during much of his free time. He recently discovered the stapler and has gone through an entire package of construction paper in about two weeks. We also try to get some outside time in the late afternoon before it gets dark.

Tuesday Aaron goes to school. My daugher and I hang out at the house or run errands.

Wednesday both kids are in school.

Thursday Aaron goes to school for an extended day till 2 pm. It is optional, but he always wants to stay. I figure it is better he is there learning and interacting than bored at home. Thursday night he goes to martial arts.

Friday morning is school for Aaron till noon. I usually take my girl to the indoor playground at the mall. Occupational Therapy is at 3 pm.

Saturday morning at 10 is martial arts again. Sometimes our museum has "Saturday Morning Science" classes for the 4-7 age group that Aaron enjoys. I take Aaron to these when I have someone to watch Maddie.

My dh works rotating day/night 12 hour shifts with frequent overtime, so I do a lot of this by myself. Aaron enjoys school and getting out of the house. It is so much easier to keep him busy during the school year. I dread summer! We are all sooooo bored!

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Registered: 02-20-2001
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 7:34pm
You have raised a point I have been thinking abotu latelt.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 9:34pm

I stay home with DD Sylvia (4 y.o., PDD-NOS) and DS Sebastian (2 y.o., language delayed). Before Sebastian was born, I did a lot of activities with Sylvia during the day, mostly through our local parks & rec center, which offers tons of inexpensive or free programs. We did baby swim classes, gym classes, music classes... Plus I'm in our local chapter of the MOMS Club, and we were in a weekly playgroup. Once Sebastian was born, things got trickier... For one thing, a lot of activities were difficult to manage with a newborn in tow. And, when Sylvia turned 2, a lot of really antisocial tendencies began to surface. It was very difficult for her to be among groups of kids, and she responded by getting pretty aggressive when we were out. Even when she wasn't aggressive, she would get very overwhelmed very easily, and it was impossible for me to give her the kind of attention I needed to in order to keep her calm, while at the same time watching Sebastian -- especially once he became mobile. (I still have a hard time taking them to playground or children's museum by myself, since both kids tend to immediately take off in opposite directions.) So I took them places where one or both of them could be in the stroller: the zoo was, and remains, a favorite. I also did lots of fine motor activities like painting, play-doh, coloring, etc. If your kids try to eat craft materials, spread out a tarp on kitchen floor and break out edible finger paints: jelly, whipped cream, peanut butter, etc., and let them go to town! Or plop a couple of them in the bathtub with funnels, strainers, and other containers or bath toys.

Now that Sylvia is in preschool 5 mornings a week, I have Sebastian in all of the classes and playgroups -- but even when I have both kids with me, Sylvia has gotten to the point where she likes being out around other kids, so I can actually take both kids out places without it being too much of an issue. So my schedule these days is: I set my alarm for 5:55am, then work out for 1/2 hour. I shower and dress while DH works out, then get the kids at around 7:15am. Breakfast at 7:30, and Sylvia catches the bus to preschool at 8:20 or so. I try to do *something* with Sebastian most days of the week, even if it's just a trip to Target. He has a music class on Wednesdays, we usually go to a storytime at Barnes & Noble on Thursdays, and he has a gym class on Fridays. Mondays and Tuesdays I either do errands with him, or else try to get together with a friend for a playdate. We're home by 11am usually, and Sylvia gets home around 11:30am. They're allowed to watch one TV show before lunch (usually Blues Clues), lunch at noon, and quiet time/nap time at 1pm or 1:30pm. They're both up by 3pm usually, and we have a snack, then usually we stick around home for the rest of the day unless we have a particular outing (a birthday party or something like that) -- or if the kids are going crazy and we NEED to get out of the house! When the weather is nice we try to get outside every afternoon, but I live in upstate NY so we have a long stretch of winter when that's not really possible. So we try to do some active indoor play -- games that get them jumping and moving -- and some quiet play (reading books together on the couch, painting or coloring, play-doh, etc.) At around 5pm I get dinner ready, and the kids can watch another TV show before dinner. We eat somewhere between 5:30 and 6pm, and we try to get the kids in bed at around 7:30pm.

I have no idea what things are like for you -- do you feel like you could take all 3 kids out and about by yourself? If so, I'd definitely recommend getting memberships to your local zoo, museums, etc. Check your library to see if they have programs for the kids -- storytimes, etc. -- and also check your parks & rec department. It will help keep you busy, and maybe you'll meet other moms.

Jennifer :)

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Registered: 08-26-2005
Thu, 02-16-2006 - 9:44pm
We have a pretty hectic schedule because both of my kids are in E.I so we have at least one therapy session everyday and a lot of what we do together is based around involving in their play things we do in therapy. The development we live in has very few stay at home moms so I usually go to a Moms group at our church on a Tuesday and do storytime Mondays and Wednedays just to have some adult interaction during the day. Recently it seems I spend at least an hour a day on the phone trying to organize appoinments or evaluations for services for the kids.In good weather we go for walks and to the playground but in the winter we spend a lot of time indoors. I'm looking forward to the Spring just so we can get outdoors again because I think Jakes recent behavior has a lot to do with being stuck inside all day.I'm a clean freak so I am always doing something in the house and I swear our washing machine is always going. Even after the kids go to bed I spent about another hour tidying up after them. It's all so exciting!(LOL)
Teresa