Laura Vanderkam was recently writing about a number of related things (how's that for specificity!), most notably time use studies, leisure time, and sleep. The gist of it, as usual, is that I end up annoyed by generalizations about what "most" people do, because I find myself so far outside the "norm" for many of these things.
Here's a typical day for me right now:
7:30 if I'm not already awake, get up and haul the kids out of bed; make lunch for Tiny Boy; nag LG to get ready
8:15 drive kids to their respective places
9:00 COFFEE! sit down to work; concentrate on new writing; take short breaks every hour or when I'm getting squirrely (either internet time or, better, doing laundry or dishes, or sometimes a shower--see night)
12:00ish if it's not raining (argh!!) take a short walk and eat lunch
12:30ish back to work; either other writing projects or reading for next day
3:30 continue working or domestic tasks as necessary (i.e. this is when I'm meeting with plumbers and such)
4:45 pick up small people, possibly stop at the library on the way for more reading material
5:30 home, snuggle with kids, make dinner
6:00 dinner/family time, including dinner clean up
7:30 upstairs for baths, wind down time
8:45-9:00 say goodnight to LG, put Tiny Boy in the crib; try to sit down to watch a movie or read something but I can't leave my bedroom because he knows how to get out of the crib but can't yet get himself to the toilet which he needs to do repeatedly (and yes he actually goes) and if I go downstairs there's just running and screaming and antics; if I'm there I can at least escort him back so LG can sleep. so maybe I read a page or watch a scene from a film in the dark with the volume off (yay closed captions) but this is anything but relaxing.
10:00 if I'm lucky kids are asleep now, 10:15 is more realistic; get ready for bed, read a few pages legitimately or maybe check email, which is dumb
10:45 fall asleep, but only because I've taken unisom or lunesta
2:00-3:00 Tiny Boy comes in to my bed, Tiny Boy goes back to his room, an hour or more of skittish sleep
6:00 Tiny Boy requires milk and goes back to sleep, mostly I doze, sometimes I'm just awake but not ready for the day
So clearly bedtime needs some fine tuning. LG's fine in her room and leaves me alone even if she's not sleeping but Tiny Boy, well, not so much. I really can't wait for him to stop napping at daycare...then he's down by 7:30 or 8:00. But when I hear the average American has more than 3 hrs of leisure per day? My head is sort of ready to explode.
And now I need to pick up LG because contrary to the above, she's doing a 1/2 day program this week. ARGH.
Here's a typical day for me right now:
7:30 if I'm not already awake, get up and haul the kids out of bed; make lunch for Tiny Boy; nag LG to get ready
8:15 drive kids to their respective places
9:00 COFFEE! sit down to work; concentrate on new writing; take short breaks every hour or when I'm getting squirrely (either internet time or, better, doing laundry or dishes, or sometimes a shower--see night)
12:00ish if it's not raining (argh!!) take a short walk and eat lunch
12:30ish back to work; either other writing projects or reading for next day
3:30 continue working or domestic tasks as necessary (i.e. this is when I'm meeting with plumbers and such)
4:45 pick up small people, possibly stop at the library on the way for more reading material
5:30 home, snuggle with kids, make dinner
6:00 dinner/family time, including dinner clean up
7:30 upstairs for baths, wind down time
8:45-9:00 say goodnight to LG, put Tiny Boy in the crib; try to sit down to watch a movie or read something but I can't leave my bedroom because he knows how to get out of the crib but can't yet get himself to the toilet which he needs to do repeatedly (and yes he actually goes) and if I go downstairs there's just running and screaming and antics; if I'm there I can at least escort him back so LG can sleep. so maybe I read a page or watch a scene from a film in the dark with the volume off (yay closed captions) but this is anything but relaxing.
10:00 if I'm lucky kids are asleep now, 10:15 is more realistic; get ready for bed, read a few pages legitimately or maybe check email, which is dumb
10:45 fall asleep, but only because I've taken unisom or lunesta
2:00-3:00 Tiny Boy comes in to my bed, Tiny Boy goes back to his room, an hour or more of skittish sleep
6:00 Tiny Boy requires milk and goes back to sleep, mostly I doze, sometimes I'm just awake but not ready for the day
So clearly bedtime needs some fine tuning. LG's fine in her room and leaves me alone even if she's not sleeping but Tiny Boy, well, not so much. I really can't wait for him to stop napping at daycare...then he's down by 7:30 or 8:00. But when I hear the average American has more than 3 hrs of leisure per day? My head is sort of ready to explode.
And now I need to pick up LG because contrary to the above, she's doing a 1/2 day program this week. ARGH.
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