Typical Day

Typical Day (Week Day)

People sometime ask what a typical day is like for me at home with the kids. Once I stop laughing at the phrase “typical day” they usually have walked away as I used up their weirdness quota for the day. I mean I’m a stay at home dad of 4 who home schools and is also a part time Associate Pastor. The typical day is full of mistakes, accidents and interruptions. On some days, we visit people, do school, go to the museum, etc. On some days, my greatest accomplishment was taking a shower.

Equally, my new homeschooling motto is this. 

“Make the plan. Execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan” – Leonard Snart

 So, after a lot of thinking this is what a day looks like at least some of the time. This is on days where 1) Lindsey worked the night before and/or is going to work today.

6:20AM Alarm (this is assuming none of the kids have woken me up to this point)

Ugh, is that the alarm. Where am I? What time is it? Whose crying? I hope I remembered to prep the coffee pot. Why did I dream about *insert your name here* riding an Ice Cream Pony down the center of the aisle at church while I was preaching?

6:25AM Stumble into kitchen to see I did remember to set coffee maker! Hurrah! (If I didn’t I keep some homemade cold brew coffee in the fridge that I have a small bit off so I can be alert enough to make a proper cup). Once in a blue moon I get that rare few minutes of coffee and time in the Bible without any kids being awake. Those 5 minutes are glorious!

6:30-6:40ish Lucas is awake! I go get him, get him his cup of milk (fixed the night before) and we sit on the couch and watch Sesame Street. I snuggle with him as long as he allows or until the other kids get up and crowd us. This is usually 10-15 minutes.

7:00 AM Everyone is awake!  I’m going to spend the next several hours going “Shhh. Keep it down. Mommy is sleeping.” As she works the night shift and likely didn’t get to bed until 3AM at best.

7:30-8:30 AM Breakfast & Screen time! Kids can watch whatever they want to (that’s pre-approved) on their tablets. This is usually when Sam gets to play Mario or Splatoon. I take a quick shower and work on Laundry while watching something on Netflix. I find shows I like that I only watch while doing laundry or dishes. It motivates me to do them.

8:30 AM – Screens Off. Get the kids get prepared for the day. Brush teeth, wash face, get dressed etc.

8:45-9:00AM – Lucas takes a morning nap. School starts. Lindsey is usually up at this point even if she didn’t get home until 3am.

10:30-10:45 AM – Morning break from school. Lucas up from morning nap. We have an area of the house sectioned off and somewhat Lucas proofed that he roams around in playing with toys, eating loose cheerios from breakfast and being adorable.

10:45- 12:00 PM – School and then lunch. Lindsey heads out to work.

12:00PM – 1:00 PM – Lunch! Leftovers from last night’s dinner or sandwiches.

1:00 – 2:00 PM Finish up school as needed. With homeschooling the bulk of what we accomplish is usually done before lunch. Some days we are done as early as 11:30 if the kids focus and get it done. Some days we don’t call it quits until 5PM. Most days we are done around 1:30. 

2:00-4:00 PM – Lucas afternoon naps if Lindsey is at home. I will go out and run errands and visit mom at Cambridge with a varying number of kids. Errands are the typical ones, groceries, post office, dry cleaners, pharmacy, library, etc. The more kids I have with me the less errands that get done. You ever try to take 4 small kids to Wal-Mart? You should some time! To anyone who was ever upset that I didn’t wave at you at Wal-Mart. It’s not because I have a deep-down grudge against you because you’ve never seen The Princess whatever. It’s because I was busy pulling a kid off a shelf, trying to find the one that had wandered away, trying to keep the baby from eating everything in the cart, and carrying a kid because the cart ran over their foot.   

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM – Errands are done. We are home. If the weather is nice they go outside. If they aren’t grounded and it’s raining they can watch more screens until 5. I start dinner. My cooking repertoire has grown from Bojangles and Little Caesars to various meals. I try to have each dinner with a meat, a vegetable and a fruit. However, some days Little Caesars and no dishes wins out. This is at least once a week. I also have an impressive streak of the pizza not being ready when I go in there. I order a cheese pizza and crazy bread. 9 times out of 10 they have to cook the pizza. This is fine. I know it’s fresh. My wife can go in there and it’s ready every time. As can Madison. I cannot.

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM – Family time. We eat dinner. Play games. Wrestle. Do chores. Dance Parties. Read books. Watch a movie. Bath the children.

7:00-8:30 PM Bed time. I have a tiered bed time system in place presently from youngest to oldest. By 8:30 everyone is usually in bed. I think oh boy I can do all these things now that the kids are all asleep. I start deciding on what I’m going to do next. I could play a video game, binge watch a show, watch current sporting event. So many possibilities!

8:45PM. I fall asleep on the couch before I make a decision.

11ish. I wake up with the TV on realizing I dozed off on the couch again and I stumble my way to bed. Right before I go back to sleep I think to myself “Did I prep the coffee pot?”

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Glen