There’s a strange phenomenon that occurs in family homes every weekday afternoon.
At 2:59pm, life seems relatively manageable.
But come 3:07pm, it’s a completely different story.
Welcome to the after-school shift.
The hours after school involve an impressive number of things happening at exactly the same time.
Someone needs to be fed immediately. Someone else needs help finding their soccer socks. There’s homework to start, an activity to get to, a school email you forgot to read and at least one child asking what’s for dinner before you’ve even thought about it.
If you have more than one littlie, the logistics become even more impressive. One needs to be at training at 4pm, another needs collecting at 4:15pm and both locations are conveniently 25 minutes apart.
Apparently, parenting also requires advanced skills in scheduling, transport coordination and being in two places at once.
Once you finally arrive home, it’s time for homework.
This usually begins with your littlie insisting they don’t have any.
A quick check of the school app tells you that they do, in fact, have homework, and it’s due tomorrow.
Meanwhile, another child needs help building a model of the solar system, and you’re attempting to piece together dinner from whatever is left in the fridge.
There is no popping into Woolies at this point, so tonight’s meal will be best described as interesting.
Eventually, homework is finished and somehow, dinner makes it onto the table.
At least one person is immediately unhappy.
“What’s that green bit?”
Broccoli. It’s broccoli. You’ve eaten it before.
“I don’t like it.”
You did yesterday.
After spending half the meal encouraging everyone to sit down, use their fork and keep their hands to themselves, you realise it’s somehow nearly bedtime.
Wonderful. Time for the final event.
All afternoon, your children had very little to tell you. The second you mention bed, they remember everything.
Of course they need a drink, the toilet and a Band-Aid. They’ve remembered that tomorrow is dress-up day, and they can tell you in extraordinary detail about something that happened at lunchtime three weeks ago.
Eventually, the house does go quiet, and you remember you need to do it all again tomorrow.
Sound familiar?
The hours between school pickup and bedtime may always be a little hectic, but with an extra pair of capable hands, you don’t have to manage it all by yourself.
If your afternoons feel this way, Coastal Babysitters is here to help.
Book a trusted local babysitter and make the busiest part of your day feel far more manageable.
