155 | Simplify the After School Hours with Hacks that Will Make Everything Easier!

[00:00:00] What are the things causing you to feel stressed at home? And where, and when do you feel the most overwhelmed? I asked this question in the intentional edit Facebook group, and today I’m willing to respond to one of the replies. With some ideas to simplify your evening hours and get a handle on that time after school, that’s causing you so much stress and overwhelm.

 Today, we are talking about a topic of conversation that I learned about from the Facebook community. It’s something that comes up in conversations that I have with friends, family members on coaching calls, clients, talk about this kind of thing a lot. We have a Facebook group that I made specifically for the intentional edit podcast listeners, so that we could have a community where we could talk back and forth we can get a little bit of conversation going over there. if you haven’t [00:02:00] already join the Facebook group, it is a group specifically for the podcast listeners.

And you can click on the link in the show notes or the podcast description. It’s wherever you are listening to. This podcast, just scroll down, click on that link to join the Facebook group. It will ask you three questions that you have to answer. If you don’t answer those questions, when you want to join, it’s a private group. So if you don’t answer the questions, then we will not approve you to be part of the group.

You will just get deleted and you can always ask to join again, but you need to answer the questions because that’s the only way that we know you are a real person. That wants to be involved in the group and not some kind of a bot or a spam account or something that is just going to join and cause problems.

join the Facebook group link is in the podcast description and you can get involved over there. There’s also a lot of resources. You can send me your messages. You can ask questions in the group. I would love to connect and help you with whatever you need over in that Facebook group. Some of the time is I might post a question or ask something or do a live video there’s a lot of different things happen. I asked the question about what is causing you overwhelm or what is causing you to feel stressed out at home. And this was one of the responses. I’m going to use it for the tip Tuesday episode. This is what the comment said.

Kids get off the bus and it feels like it’s a free for all from three to eight or 9:00 PM, trying to fit it all in sports practice activities, helping with homework, cooking, dinner, eating as a family, bath time and showers and trying to get any quality time. Oh, and don’t forget about 30 minutes of practicing reading that is supposed to happen every night, too.

three to eight or three to 9:00 PM is just a chunk of your day. It’s a small chunk of your day. And that list is a ton of times out by however many kids you [00:04:00] have a lot goes into the evening hours. No wonder we can be stressed out and grouchy and feel overwhelmed. I’m not going to lie to make it sound better than it is. It is a lot. You are trying to do a lot in that amount of time. We hear your energy is already low and who are pulled in many directions.

You’ve already conquered many things throughout the day. When you are the manager of your home, the organizer, the facilitator of all the coming and going, the cook, the person that prepares everything and plans for everything, the crisis prevention among siblings, trying to have quality time and make memories and chauffer kids back and forth to activities and get anything done for yourself.

The list goes on and on and on and on. And the thing is that we need the requirements, the duties, all of that stuff. Changes quickly. It changes frequently. The only way to manage all of these things is to have good routines. You hear me say it all the time. I’m always talking about good systems and good routines, good routines have to be in place so that you can get to the half tos, those things that have to be done.

The non-negotiable things, good systems and routines. That is what makes it possible to simplify everything and do more with less. Effort. Did you hear me? A good routine makes it so you can get more done with less effort. Going back to this response. I know so many people can relate to this. If you can’t personally, if your afterschool hours, it don’t feel like they are stressed out right now. I know you have friends or people that you know, that do feel this way. I want to address a few things.

The first one quality time. Quality time does not have to be a special outing or a fancy dinner or a vacation or something big. [00:06:00] It does not have to be a significant event or activity. Quality time. Can be a very simple, it can be. Helping to pick out a favorite meal and then helping parents cook dinner or quality time can happen during nightly reading.

You can get it in. You have to hit the reading in get the quality time in during that time to quality time calm was in different shapes, different sizes. And looks different and it will be different.

When the ages of your kids change, the phase of life you’re in is different. It is. Okay. Do not put these giant expectations on quality time. Quality of time can just mean unplugging being intentional, setting down the devices, turning the TV off, putting the iPad away and looking your kids in the eye and having a few minutes with a conversation or hope cooking dinner, or helping with homework, those little moments.

Can be the quality of time. Now let’s talk about the reading. 30 minutes of nightly reading. I used to be a teacher I’ve taught both elementary school and high school. And the other day I was on the phone with my friend who has been a reading specialist for many, many years. And she agrees with this.

If you can’t get in a full 30 minutes, every single night of nightly reading. It’s okay. I do not beat yourself up over this. It’s okay. It’s okay. If it’s more like 20 minutes every night or 15 minutes every night. The reason for the nightly reading is to get practicing. It’s a process. It’s the practice that counts and that matters and turns your kid into a better reader. So if it’s not 30 minutes and it happens to be 15 minutes one night, and it happens to be 20 minutes the next night. And oops, you actually forgot it. One [00:08:00] night out of 10 it’s O K.

Do not worry about it. If it’s a little bit short because everyone is exhausted. It’s not a big deal. Remember, sleep is important to sleep is huge insignificant. And if you have to cut that 30 minutes down to 20 minutes, you are still doing a great job. And your child can still come out a excellent reader.

The second thing I want to talk about is dinner. Dinner time is a huge struggle for so many people. If you’re trying to figure out what to make, who’s going to eat it. Who used to eat it, but doesn’t eat those things now. How are you going to get these meals on the table? You’re running errands. You’re dropping kids off. You’re really not at home during these hours most days a week. How are you going to get dinner on the table?

This was my struggle. that is why I created a meal planning course and a meal planning method that I have been using for many, many years. And the idea behind it is create a reusable meal plan with the corresponding grocery list. So you do not have to come up with dinners every single week. It saves time. It saves money. It minimizes the amount of time that you have to go to the grocery store. So if you want to have the framework to create.

A reusable meal plan. That is for two weeks at a time that will save you. Time will save you money, help you figure out what is realistic for dinners and your family, and how often you could actually get home cooked meals on the table. Then sign up for that meal planning course that is available to you.

It is available in the podcast description. There is a link you can click on that and sign up for that meal planning. Mini course, you can do this and have your meal plan done and just a couple hours. The third thing that we need to talk about. Is the homework and the activities and all the things that are taking up time.

If you have kids that are in the car while other kids are in activities and they have homework, create a homework [00:10:00] kit. That is a to go homework kit. That can be a little zipper pouch, or a pencil box. That has the necessary supplies to get homework done in it. And also create one of these things at home, a little box or some kind of container that has the things they need, a pencils, highlighters, or ruler, whatever the age of your kids are in the classes they’re in will dictate that.

And it can move from place to place and be placed in the location where the homework is happening. I know things are happening simultaneously at your house because of all the things that are on the list. You have a lot going on. And that’s just the way it is right now. It might not be like that in two years. And it’s like that today. Maybe it wasn’t like that two years ago. So come up with a plan that works for these hours for what is going on right now. Think it out.

Multitask where you have to and create routines that serve your family to get more done of the things that have to be done and this part of the day, and then move those things around. You want to get more done as part of a simple routine, because the good routine. After 30 days of doing something over and over again, we do that. We practice that intentional routine for 30 days over and over again, it becomes a habit.

And when something becomes a habit, that means you’re not thinking about it. You’re getting these things done with less effort. We can all simplify our struggles with routines and intentional changes. Give yourself time to come up with a new plan. Think about what you want your afternoons and evening hours to look like and what is realistic. Remove the stuff that doesn’t have to happen during that time and put it into a different routine, but start with this struggle time of the day and establish new routines that work to serve your family.

Don’t forget to join the Facebook group. And the [00:12:00] link for that is in the podcast description, along with the link for the meal plan course, if you’re interested in signing up for that

 If you are struggling with this time of day, Go ahead and carve out some time for yourself where you can imagine what you want at the time to look like. And set up a good routine for your family for afterschool hours. It might vary from day to day, but keep the basics the same and simplify so we can get this chunk of your day to be less stressful and a little bit easier. Thanks for listening. I will see you back here at the end of the week for the Friday episode.