Children: Too Much Stimulation versus Too Much Downtime

Prior to buying the daycare, anytime my kids were aggravating to deal with or just simply being hard headed, my mom would say,

“well, they’ve been cooped up all day and they need to be able to get out and play.”

Then, we bought the daycare. And, day in and day out we were at the daycare. Saturday and Sunday’s we were at the daycare. Everyday was a daycare day. Sometimes for cleaning, sometimes for regular school, sometimes for brainstorming, sometimes for painting, sometimes…just to make sure it was still there.

Lo and behold, the children tired of going to the daycare. My mom would let them stay with her anytime she could so that they didn’t have to go to there especially on the weekends. After about 8 months, the boys behavior started to decline. Slowly they were crying, acting out, crying, acting out some more and finally ending up in tons of trouble. My mom said,

“well, they are tired of going to the daycare everyday, they’re just kids you know”.

Yea, I know.

Christmas break seemed to do the kids a lot of good. They returned after Christmas break with a new attitude. They were the good kids that were involved in daycare prior to us buying the daycare and in the beginning.

About a month ago, we were back to bad behavior. They were in trouble every day. We punished them when they got home at night. It didn’t do any good. Finally, my mom was feeling better and was able to let them stay home a day or 2 a week. That helped their disposition a lot.

Well with all the daycare chaos (lack of employees for one), my mom kept the boys at home so they wouldn’t get in trouble at school and would have some freedom. It has helped a lot. They didn’t go to school at all last week but neither did I because I didn’t want to expose all the kids (and adults) to mono.

Monday morning my mom came to my house just as the boys were getting out of bed. I returned to my sleepy comfy big pillowed bed. Then, my mom was suppose to have another treatment yesterday but didn’t because her blood levels weren’t good enough. I managed with the boys the best I could and then Boy Genius came home from work early. I started calling him around 9 and begging him to come home.

Today, my mom wasn’t feeling well either but between the two of us, we managed. I sit here now, worried to death about tomorrow. If my mom is too sick, then Boy Genius has to come home early and that puts a strain on him at work.

I was complaining about the kids behavior when my mom says, “

well, they’ve been cooped up all week, they need to be able to get outside and run and play”.

Come on, where’s the reasoning here?

Too much stimulation or too much downtime? Is there such a thing as a happy medium and

is it my responsibility to make sure my kids have both or is it my responsibility to make sure my children learn how to have both for himself.

Then, I think even more about what’s happening. My mom will have a treatment next Monday or Tuesday and that means for at least 6 days, she won’t be able to help me. And, right now, I can’t help myself.

I never dreamed that I would need a babysitter when my kids were 3 and 5 just as much as I did when I was on bed rest with Mini-Me and I had to have someone watch Ditto-Boy all day everyday.

Honestly, if you’ve never had mono, pray you don’t get it. You see, when you are a teenager and the doctor says “rest, sleep and rest some more, no activity, nothing but rest”, it is fairly simple. After all, is that not what teenagers do anyway? But as an adult, with two children, and a daycare business that just closed down and needs all the final paperwork done, I really don’t know how to cope.

Really. Coping? No.

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