- Celebrate!!
Remember…... when the kids return to school, it serves to
structure you also!
Relish this imposed organization!
- Schedule Time For Yourself.
Block off time in your appointment book for yourself, and don’t
cancel it.
If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t have
it in you to take care of anyone else. It’s the same as
the airlines telling you to put your oxygen mask on before you
help your kids with theirs. If you’re running out of air,
you’re not going to have the strength or stamina to make
sure the kids get their masks on correctly.
Go to the gym. Take a class. Visit a museum. Go to the movies.
Get a massage. Get a manicure. Do any of those things that you
wouldn’t dare attempt with the kids along! (Keep it legal!!)
- Stay Connected
Keep contact with friends & professional peers. Whether you
work outside the home, are a stay-at-home mom, or run a business
from your home, it’s important for you to make and maintain
contact with the adults in your life.
Use the telephone. Write a letter. Send an email. Have lunch/dinner
with a different friend or group of friends each week. Join a
virtual group.
- Make It Easy To Track/Remember Important Information
One of my most favorite ideas is to keep a 6 X 4 notebook by your
phone(s). Anytime you need to call teachers, utilities, doctors,
insurance companies, your child’s soccer coach, etc. use
it to take notes during your conversation.
Remember to put the date & time and name of person to whom
you speak right at the top. The next time you need to know who
said what and when, you’ll know exactly where to look.
- Make & Post Lists
This is a really helpful visual cue to help structure yourself
and your child, and to decrease the likelihood of any of you walking
out the door without something important. Post a copy of the list
on your child’s bedroom door or other prominent bedroom
area, and one in the kitchen.
The most important time periods to focus on are the Before-School,
After-School, and Bedtime routines.
With your child, develop a list of tasks that need to be done
each day. Putting the list in the order in which they should be
completed is a good idea, because it helps to keep the child focused
and on track.
It’s also helpful to have a space in which the child can
place a check mark when they’re through with each item.
Being able to cross or check something off as completed, can be
a great reinforcer.
It’s easy to make and revise these lists with a computer.
And best of all, having a list to which to refer the kids takes
the heat off of you as the ‘bad guy’ or nag. They
were in on the development of the list……….
- Create a Family Activities Calendar
This is absolutely the best idea I’ve ever come up with!!
Get a large calendar for the front of your refrigerator. The best
are the ones that are magnetic and have (at the very least) a
‘cup’ for pens built right onto it. They have all
kinds now – you can get one for a side-by-side refrigerator,
or the traditional freezer on top model.
Assign a different color highlighter for each family member –
and keep an ink pen & the highlighters in the cup.
Write everyone’s activities, appointments, work schedules,
etc. on the calendar and then highlight it in the corresponding
color.
I’ve found that picking a separate color just for days that
school is closed, and/or there is an early dismissal is helpful.
Otherwise, there’s too much in the child’s color,
and when there’s too much it tends to blend in, rather than
to stand out.
- Keep All Homework Supplies In One Place
Get a clear, plastic shoebox and fill it with pencils, pens, crayons,
glue, scissors, a ruler, highlighters, colored pencils, etc. and
keep it in the area in which your child will be doing their homework.
That way you, or your child, won’t have to spend time hunting
things down. You can just get down to the business of doing homework.
- Cook Dinner While ‘Supervising’ Homework
Often you need to be available, and yet not ‘too’
available to your child, while they do their homework. One way
to be there, and not be there is to prepare dinner while they
do their homework at the dining room/kitchen table.
Or if cooking dinner is not an option, use this time to open mail/toss
junk mail, or to read the newspaper; anything that is easily interrupted.
Try to do it in an adjacent room, rather than in the same one
as your child.
- Keep A Magazine/Book In The Car
If you’re like most people with ADD, getting to places on
time is a big problem, often because you don’t want to leave
‘too’ early, or else you might have to wait, and therefore
be bored.
One of the things that helps with this is to keep a magazine or
book that you never get the chance to read, in the car. Having
to wait can start to feel more like the desired outcome instead
of an imposition.
- Get A Personal Coach
Who helps you to stay on track while you’re making sure
everyone else gets where they need to get and has what they need
to have?
Having a coach is kind of like having your own personal oxygen
mask, available on demand.
A coach can help you find and sustain your strength and stamina.
A personal coach helps you learn how to balance all of the demands
inherent to the job of “Mom” without neglecting yourself.
Meg Gannon is a personal/professional
coach and therapist in private practice.
For more information, or if you are interested
in a complimentary _-hour coaching session, please contact Meg at
Meg@InnerSimplicity.com
Copyright © 2001 Inner Simplicity
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The
Top Ten Things To Help Moms With ADD Cope With The Start Of Another
School Year!
