6 Tips to Help You Through "The Witching Hour"
There's an hour each day that I like to refer to as "the witching hour." It’s that time of day, late afternoon to early evening, when your children seem to lose all control and everyone is getting on each other’s nerves. It’s also the time of day your spouse is usually stuck in traffic, and you are texting/calling every 10 minutes asking, “WHEN are you going to be home?” By the time he gets home, you are so exhausted and frazzled, your response is, “take the kids, I’m going to the bathroom by myself and I’ll be out in two hours!”
Now, I might be exaggerating, but I also might be describing your afternoon today. So, when the witching hour is upon us... what can we do? Here are six tips that have helped me:
Try to work on dinner earlier in the day. I bet that the hour before dinner time is the witching hour for a lot of you. Instead of having to deal with the chaos of children and figuring out dinner... prep earlier in the day so you only have to pop something in the oven on the grill.
Save a “good” activity for the kids during this time of the day. As moms, we’ve usually exhausted our bag of tricks by 4:00 in the afternoon, so get in habit of reserving a trick or two.
Separate your kids. If your children cannot seem to keep their hands to themselves and continue to aggravate their siblings, it’s okay to separate them (even after they’ve been napping for an hour or so). It’s better to separate and put everyone in their own corners than have mutiny.
Get the kids out of the house. Try what I used to do and throw everyone outside until dinnertime. Tell them to figure it out, use their imaginations!
It's okay to point them towards a screen sometimes. Save screen time for the last resort, not because it’s a bad thing, but you have to hold back some of your cards, and if it reaches 5:00 and dad is still 45 minutes out, it’s okay to use a screen to entertain them until dinner.
Lastly, give yourself a break. You don’t have to put a five-course gourmet meal on the table each night. Crockpots can be your best friend during this stage of life.
Hope these tips help and don’t forget to breathe! ;)