Monday, April 6, 2009

It Says So On the Chart

Pregnancy brain has affected me until I am now a chaotic mess. I need some serious help here. We're not getting anything done on time, and the house is slowly sinking into a pit beyond recognition. I need someone else to be in charge and tell me what to do. Any volunteers?

I didn't think so.

I created my own "boss". It's name is "Written Schedule". It took me an entire day of working on it while the boys did math and grammar next to me to come up with a color-coded chart for each day of the week. While I was at it, I threw in a schedule for laundry room use and a daily cleaning chart for every bedroom in the house, all personalized and carefully thought out. Jealous yet?

It has worked well for a week, except that I (in my brilliance) forgot to schedule blogging time. I'll bet you'd wondered why I was scarce around here. You weren't on my schedule, silly me. Now you are, feel better?

There is something very freeing about looking at children when they start to argue about doing anything and being able to shrug and say, "It's not me, sweetheart. It's on the chart. Go argue with it if you don't like it." They just accept that there is a higher power at work here, go look at the schedule and do as it says. We are beginning to run like a well oiled machine around here. Okay, I'll be honest. We're not quite at the "well-oiled" point. We're running like an old rusty engine that's just getting going, but still knocks and sputters and needs some fine tuning.

I'm not usually one to give up my parental powers to anyone, much less to a piece of paper. I'm rethinking that right now. With my declining IQ leaving me feeling just a few points from the short bus, I need all the back-up I can get, and today that darn piece of paper is just smarter than me.

6 comments:

entropy said...

I would love to see your chart! I'm always looking for inspiration and ways to organize our household.

the Mom said...

Send me your email address and I will send it to you. It has our "real names" on it, and I'm not allowed to post them here.

Foxfier, formerly Sailorette said...

You're not shedding your authority, since you make the chart-- you're delegating!

(does that make you feel better?)

Nod said...

My wife made a similar chart in which they not only get credit for things done, but the attitude it was done with!

mom2nine said...

I would love to see your chart. I'm searching the net now for something to organize this chaos we now live in.

Karie, the Regular Guy's Extraordinary Wife said...

What they said - could I get a copy of that chart? I get fuzzy too.