Parenting young or even not-so-young children while living with PsA can be a challenge. What tips and tricks do you have to share with our community?
One of the things that helps me a lot is to, when I'm feeling up to it, make up craft kits for the kids so that when I need downtime, I can pull out a craft the kids can do on their own and let them have at it while I rest - or sit down to join in on the crafting. :)
I'm a stay-at-home mom. My daughter is at the age (7) where she still wants the one-on-one attention, so I've struggled with this myself.
I've used movie time about once a week, and the rest of the time I struggle through. Craft time is something she wants to do with me (I'm big into crafting and have lots of fun gadgets/tools).
School starts on the 29th, so I'm counting down the days. :)
Cuddling in moms bed with a movie is always good for down days. Or a rousing game Mario kart. And sometimes they are the reason to get out of bed and push through.
With my 16 year old son, we spend lots of time watching sporting events together. For my 11 year old daughter, we at times have girl time where we watch a "chick flick" or she will get out a cookbook and start cooking. She loves to work in the kitchen.
My about-to-turn-16yo and I have always played videogames together. We read a lot of sci-fi together and discuss it.
My 12yo is more social but is happy to just hang out wherever I am and talk. We also play a ton of board games and listen to audiobooks.
The biggest help, from the time my children were little, was to let them know they were integral to the running of the house. I grew up on a farm where even the youngest (me) had plenty of work to do, and I *knew* it was important and necessary so someone else could do another job. My children, from toddlerhood on, could do simple tasks. I've added more as they get older. It's still not much compared to farmwork :) but my motto is "we're all in this together, and it takes all of us to keep the house and family going". They are not necessarily helping ME because I can't do things (though that is part of it), but simply doing work because it is part of the job of a family and house, and it just needs doing, and it's not fair to dump all that in one person.
Everyone in my family loves to read so I often have my son (8) get in some book time (he’ll happily read for 3 hours straight) and he wouod play with his legos all day if I let him. My little girl (5 months) is an all together different story as she is not very self entertaining yet. My son helps out as much as he can and my parents (who live with us - long story) help out a lot. We home school so our schedule is pretty flexible as well.
A tip: put in an audiobook while your son plays Legos. Keeps his mind going while he's building. My son would play Legos and listen to audiobooks for hours on end! Most kids can comprehend books far above their reading level. Audiobooks are a good way to meet that need.
ps: I've been homeschooling my son all along...he's going into 11th grade this fall! Eeek!
bumble said:
Everyone in my family loves to read so I often have my son (8) get in some book time (he'll happily read for 3 hours straight) and he wouod play with his legos all day if I let him. My little girl (5 months) is an all together different story as she is not very self entertaining yet. My son helps out as much as he can and my parents (who live with us - long story) help out a lot. We home school so our schedule is pretty flexible as well.
I’ll have to give that a try. He reads at a sixth grade level right now 
Usually whatever he builds has something to do with whatever he’s reading at the time… I can only imagin wha5 he’ll come up with if he has a book going in the background
The audiobooks about the “boy who lived” (you all know who I’m talking about) are very good. The gentleman reads each character in a different voice. It’s a great series.
My kids are older: 9, 14, and 16, so they require lots less from me. When they were smaller, I gave them their own snack and breakfast shelf in the fridge and one in a low cabinet. I put good things for them to eat in both places, so that they could get their own snacks and make their own breakfast if they got up really early.
I'm mom to five homeschooled kids, and help friends out with their kids five days a week. I'm doing "emergency childcare" for an almost-2 year old five days a week, and have any combination of infants, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds in my house - up to 7 "extra" kids at a time. My eldest son (age 14) and my youngest son (age 7) have Aspergers, my 13 year old son has clinical depression, and my 11 year old daughter has joint issues yet to be diagnosed. My five year old is scary and precocious (really - her favorite things are dead things and she wants to be a forensic pathologist).
Like Marietta, the kids are expected to help out around the house. Each of our kids is in charge of one "zone" of the house: the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom/hallway, or laundry. They have specific responsibilities in their zones each day that must be done before they get computer/kindle/dsi time (unless it's related to homeschooling). I think my five year old may be better than most of her siblings at most of the household contributions. The rule in our house is that we all live here, so we all help keep it clean. That helps a great deal.
A routine of some sort helps a lot as well. My husband, who is home in the morning, helps kids with breakfast and does whatever cleaning up of the living room is left from the night before. He also makes sure I take my meds and eat breakfast and wrangles kids should I need to run errands. I sit the kids down for lunch in shifts, depending on how many kids are here. First it's the "littles" and the "middles" - the kids I'm taking care of that need naps and my 5 year old and her friend if she's here. There are lots of food allergies in this bunch, so it's easier to get their lunches out of the way first. Then the seven year old, eleven year old, and teens eat, which allows those without food issues to make their own lunches. Then is nap/quiet time. If I don't have any "extra" kids, it's my hour and a half of quiet time during which the kids try not to disturb me. They spend the time reading, doing homeschool projects, playing, biking, etc. After nap, we do some homeschoolish type stuff, have a snack, go for a walk, then make dinner. I get the dishwasher loaded and hand wash dishes (body willing) while I make dinner most nights. The kids put their dishes in the dishwasher after dinner.