7 Tips to Help You Through "The Witching Hour"
There's an hour each day that I like to refer to as "the witching hour." What is 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 others nerves. It’s also the time of day that your husband is usually stuck in traffic, and you are texting/calling him every 10 minutes asking him, “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!”
Okay, I might be exaggerating, but I also might be describing your day every afternoon. So, when the witching hour is upon us... what can we do? Here are seven 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 make dinner... prep your supper earlier in the day so that you only have to pop something in the oven to back or place on the grill.
Save a “good” activity for the kids during this time of the day. As moms, we have usually exhausted our bag of tricks by 4:00 in the afternoon, so reserve at least one or two tricks.
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 the favorite tv show for the last resort, not because it’s a bad thing, but you have to hold some of your cards, and if it reaches 5:00 and dad is still 45 minutes out, use the tv show 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.
Don’t forget to breathe! Love you all,
