Holy shit. I seriously don’t see how my wife does this on a daily basis without going insane. We have a 5 and 3 year old; obviously, school is out. If one more person asked me for a goddamn snack...

Today it’s my turn to get up with them.

3yo son: “Can I have a waffle?”
Me: Gets out the waffles and heats one up. (don’t feel like making them from scratch)
Him: “I want cereal.”
Me: Puts up the waffles and gets cereal. Makes bowl.
Him: “Can I have strawberries?”
Me: Gets out and cuts up strawberries.
5yo daughter: Gets up. “Can I have waffles?”
3yo son: “I want a waffle, too!”

If I had to do this full time, I would have eaten at least one of them by now.

Thank you, stay at home moms and dads!!!

Learn to say "NO!"

Try having four of em all under the age of 10. Being a stay at home parent is one of the most stressful and least appreciated occupations on this planet. The pay sucks too.

I am home with 5 & 7 year old boys as a result of various Covid shutdowns. I can totally relate with everything you typed.

I've been working remotely for the last 2 weeks. Mine are 8 & 5, so a bit more self sufficient, but definitely a different kind of distraction while trying to work.

Children can snack all day long. Momma, can I have a..... gets repeated a thousand times a day. It's a different world when Dad's home at our house. Mom makes the world go round but she's a little too soft and lenient and kids take advantage of it.

Helpful hints.

Teach them to be self sufficient. Get individual servings (chips, cereal, etc) when they are younger and can't easily 'get it themselves' from larger boxes / bags.

Learn you can say no. If you cater to their every whim, you'll be catering to their every whim.

Like most everything else, it is what you make of it.

No problem saying “no” most of the time. This is one of the few instances the wife gets to sleep in, so I was trying to avoid any noise.

My post was not a call for advice, rather it is just sharing one of those whimsical parenting moments that I figured others who have similar experiences would appreciate. Those without kids, I figured would also find it humorous.

^^All true above, and nothing new.

Gotta kinda chuckle that for some of you, this seems like the first time you're spending full day(s) being full-time parents with you kids, possibly solo.

$.02 worth.

Boss

Not my first solo by any means. However, with the pandemic BS, it is becoming more...pronounced.

I still get to work my 9/80, though.

You should have given them chocolate cake...

Hah! Cue the meme from Matrix where Morpheus says ”what if I told you your dad could also get you snacks?”
I have to say things have intensified since my little one is now home from school all day and me still trying to do something resembling work. It’s certainly not as easy as it was when he was smaller and more easily entertained. But he is reasonably self sufficient about food these days, it’s just watching him pour that makes me cringe.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
You should have given them chocolate cake...

Any a puppy.

Every parent appreciates that tongue-in-cheek threat :

'Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy.'

And yes..give parents another few weeks of '...and now homeschool too' on top of working ( if they're fortunate enough to retain employment). Especially those living in apartments or condos without at least a yard to burn off some of that kid-energy.

Boss

Drum Sets for all neices and nephews!

My wife is a stay-at-home mom. We have four kids, 11, 9, 7, and 4. The three oldest are in school, and the youngest stays home. I work nights on 12-hr shifts, and sleep mornings, so she takes on a lot of the kid responsibilities, although I am home during the day and half the nights, so I do my part as well.

I try to give her opportunities to go out by herself when I can, even if it's just to the store. She's out taking a walk right now and I'm home with the kids.

Our kids are pretty self-sufficient and well behaved. They've been entertained with Legos for the last 3 weeks, and showing no sign of slowing down. We expect them to do most things for themselves, and even the 4-year-old can handle basic chores like clearing the table and picking up his toys. Yeah, they have bad days, and the 11 y/o and the 7 y/o bicker at each other a lot, but they get shut down quick when it starts.

I have actually really been enjoying the slower pace of the "lockdown". No running the kids to and from school every day. No ridiculous, unnecessary social obligations that my wife likes to commit us to, and I've lost all of my overtime work, which was mostly school related, so I'm home more. There is a significant financial hit from that, but the extra time at home is nice, and I'm lucky to still be working. Plus I'm not paying for my wife to drive our kids and the carpool kids to school and all over creation in a Suburban every day anymore, so that softens the financial hit.

We were already planning to home school the oldest next year when he starts 7th grade (current school only goes up to 6th). I told my wife the other day that we should homeschool them all next year. She's not there yet, but I'm working on her. The kids have been loving this...they get their e-learning done by 10 or 11am, and then they get to play for the rest of the day.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
You should have given them chocolate cake...

Eggs, flour, milk..., everything a growing body needs.

The homeschooling is a bigger issue, if its a crash course. In our neck of the woods, most of the elementary teachers have been well set in their ways in traditional teaching methods...kiddos in the seats, teacher at the whiteboard with some Chromebook thrown in.

Now all of the sudden the elementary teachers are having to learn/run online classroom curriculum...and that's a bit of a bumpy road. That's if the students have computer access at home. IF not, its an even taller hurdle to get paper to/from, grading etc. If a school has been thrown into this cold, its a very steep learning curve.

And parents are having adjust to all this as well, on top of trying to work when/where they can. Lots of multitasking/balancing going on.

Boss

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
You should have given them chocolate cake...

Eggs, flour, milk..., everything a growing body needs.

“.... Dad is great give us the chocolate cake !”

I didn't know people got a choice of what to eat until I was a teenager. Seriously. When us four kids were called to eat, our plates were already served and waiting... we weren't allow to get up and leave until the plate was was clean, even if that took two hours. Only exception was breakfast cereal, you had you pick of what was on hand. No choice at school either, you got what they gave you... but you didn't have to eat it there at least.

My parents kept it simple. I ate what was prepared or went hungry. And they often beat me until my attitude improved.