After school paradox
the boys get out of school anywhere between one-ish (rarely) and 3:15ish (normally) then they go to an after-school program. If they take the bus home from school (rarely) I meet them around 3:40, but they're perfectly capable of walking home from the bus stop on their own. Most days I pick them up anywhere between 5 and 6.
each scenario is double-edged. If they take the bus home then I'm managing 5 kids for an extra 2 hours before dinner. but at least I can stay in the house more or less. If I pick them up, that's a half hour round trip where I can't be cooking. If I pick them up closer to 5 then it's only one hour gained with just the 3 girls, if I pick them up closer to 6, then everyone is hungrier and crankier while I finish dinner. although honestly, the girls are normally fed by boob or by simple stuff on a different schedule anyhow.
On these pick-up days, most times my pick-up time is dictated more about when and how someone has pooped, is in the middle of one kind of meltdown or another, or how well I've managed to wrangle everyone into the car and/or put on clothes that aren't a disgrace. Sometimes those clothes come from the floor because whatever I was wearing shortly before the car-wrangling episode has begun end up with urp, barf, (or in one recent case) gets ripped, exposing a boob.
Infants first, squirmy toddler last to the car, always. I don't know what I'll do when the twins are walking (so soon I can almost smell it) Despite the herculean effort to get 3 girls into a car, and 5 out once we've returned - somehow the allure of having 2 and a half hours where I'm not trying to entertain the boys and juggle everything else trumps the ease of just letting the boys get home before four. One of the things is... more often than not the boys arrive home from pick-up with homework done, instead of me having to cajole/berate them into it if they take the early bus.
I've been getting sightly smarter and cooking dinner around lunchtime these days and giving it a quick reheat or trying to make things that are nice enough chilled. Next step: Teaching the boys to cook simple things on the weekend, the trick is to make some sort of game out of it, but I can't trust them with actual ovens for a while I guess. Of course everything I've figured out will be useless in the next month or so, school wil be out, the twins will start walking and the soon to be 2 year old will start dating. Right?
each scenario is double-edged. If they take the bus home then I'm managing 5 kids for an extra 2 hours before dinner. but at least I can stay in the house more or less. If I pick them up, that's a half hour round trip where I can't be cooking. If I pick them up closer to 5 then it's only one hour gained with just the 3 girls, if I pick them up closer to 6, then everyone is hungrier and crankier while I finish dinner. although honestly, the girls are normally fed by boob or by simple stuff on a different schedule anyhow.
On these pick-up days, most times my pick-up time is dictated more about when and how someone has pooped, is in the middle of one kind of meltdown or another, or how well I've managed to wrangle everyone into the car and/or put on clothes that aren't a disgrace. Sometimes those clothes come from the floor because whatever I was wearing shortly before the car-wrangling episode has begun end up with urp, barf, (or in one recent case) gets ripped, exposing a boob.
Infants first, squirmy toddler last to the car, always. I don't know what I'll do when the twins are walking (so soon I can almost smell it) Despite the herculean effort to get 3 girls into a car, and 5 out once we've returned - somehow the allure of having 2 and a half hours where I'm not trying to entertain the boys and juggle everything else trumps the ease of just letting the boys get home before four. One of the things is... more often than not the boys arrive home from pick-up with homework done, instead of me having to cajole/berate them into it if they take the early bus.
I've been getting sightly smarter and cooking dinner around lunchtime these days and giving it a quick reheat or trying to make things that are nice enough chilled. Next step: Teaching the boys to cook simple things on the weekend, the trick is to make some sort of game out of it, but I can't trust them with actual ovens for a while I guess. Of course everything I've figured out will be useless in the next month or so, school wil be out, the twins will start walking and the soon to be 2 year old will start dating. Right?