I must say I have it in my heart to be a stay at home mom. I
want to be invested in my child’s life. I want to train him up in the way he
should go and enjoy every moment with him. Unfortunately, right now in my life
I am a working mom. I work 5-7 days a week and 43 hours or more. I am always on
call and I struggle with feeling like a good and present mom. People at work
even ask me, “Do you ever get a day off?” or “You never get to spend time with
you kid do you?” As if it were my choice. I do not want to work this much or
have a 45 minute commute but it is where I am right now in life. I know I am
not the only mom who feels this way. Can I get a sis to say you are right here
with me?
My goal is to make each and every day and hour I get with
him count. My goal is to consistently take care of my son in these areas:
Outside time, Cooking time, Bible time, Learning time, Reading time, Play time,
and Craft time. Those are the areas I want to cover each week and if I get
lucky we can do them multiple times but if not that’s okay. So I encourage you
to make a list of the specials “times” you want to create with your kids. Just
like working on a marriage you will have to plan and set aside time to fit this
into your busy life. But trust me it is 100% worth it.
I want to share with you how I am accomplishing each of
those “times” and what we are doing. I am a list maker and planner; there is NO
way I can have good times with David without planning them. So I plan fun
things every week. Now let’s go through each of these “times” and get your
brain turning.
·
Outside Time: I hope you already have something
set up in the backyard for you and your kiddo to play with. We have a slide,
water table, and lots of toys. I love to make it more fun though all I truly
have to do is turn the water hose on to a trickle and he could not be happier.
If you want to take it a step further freeze some toys in ice and get out the
hammer to break it open. Or if you do not have a backyard you can always go to
the park. David loves the park and asks to go almost every day. We also go on
walks and take David out in his Bicycle.
·
Cooking Time: Even at the age of 2.5 David
already wants to help in the kitchen and it is my responsibility to fuel that
passion inside of him. Every morning I let him stir the waffles. I also let him
help clean the dishes which he loves to do. If I am cooking over the stove or
with extremely hands on recipes I set up a play kitchen for him and give him
real pots and pans. My next goal is to find a recipe a week to cook with David.
I can do brownies or homemade playdough but I want to get him involved. Now if
your child hates cooking don’t force it; I do this because David is always
asking to help cook.
·
Bible Time: Every week we listen to the Kids
Bible Stories Podcast by Jessica White. It is an easy way to sneak in Bible
time while coloring or eating breakfast. It is best freebie out there for kids
Bible studies. We also listen to Steve Green’s Hide Them in My Heart CD. We
read Bible stories and have prayer time too.
·
Learning Time: It has always been my heart to be
a homeschool mom. So on my weekday off David and I do a little school. We have
been working through the ABC’s. I create for him crafts and coloring pages to
do about the letter of the day. We then go to the library in search of books
with that letter. It becomes a whole day of repeating a letter over and over as
well as pointing it out to him whenever we come across it. David loves this
time the best.
·
Reading Time: As I just mentioned on my day off
we try to go to the library. I let David pick out half of his own books. He
loves getting involved. We read almost every day and it is some of the best
cuddle time I get with him.
·
Play Time: This I will admit is hard for me
being the mom of a boy. I never grew up around many boys and the one neighbor I
grew up with well he played playhouse and beauty shop with us so I did not have
to learn how boys played. It drives me crazy to always hit the cars against each
other and have big crashes but that is what my son loves. One of these areas
will be hard for you to do and that is when you give a love gift to your child.
Boy play time for me is a love gift.
·
Craft Time: This goes hand in hand with the learning
crafts but we do it more often than once a week. We play playdough almost every
day while I am packing our lunches or folding clothes. I help him color or cut
paper when he asks. We also from time to time go play with chalk, paint, or
stickers. Crafting helps kids learn really good motor skills and creativity.
I want to encourage you mom to mom you are doing a good job.
I will admit we can always improve and always be better. I hope you were able
to read this as an encouragement and that it was an inspiration to get your
brain spinning with ideas. I want to empower my fellow working moms that you
can still make as big of an impact as a stay at home mom with your kids. You
just have to work a little harder and be 100% intentional about it. I am not
saying it will be easy but it is totally worth it. David is starting to point
out the letter A after our lesson. I heard him praying in his car seat just
last week mentioning everyone’s names. I see David all the time trying to read
himself a book. It is moments like this when I know that all the effort I pour
into him is worth it.
