Crazy Schedules

Do you feel like sometimes you just want to scream STOP!!! And every person in your home stop for a day and just spend time with each other? My teenage children are constantly on the go. (We'll atleast our oldest is.) My husbands schedule is crazy with work. He has a schedule that is sometimes night and sometimes day. I work M-F from 8am to 5 pm. For all of us to be in the house at the same time means we are either all asleep or heading out the door.

For example, today, My husband went to work at 7 am. I went to work at 8 a.m. my son is heading to play golf at 4 pm and my daughter is going to the movies with friends at 6pm. We will not be home all together until after 9 pm. Ok I am whinning.

What can we do to maintain a family structure? I know my children are older and beginning to get more independent. We raised them to be independent. But, I truly feel it is still important that we schedule out some time each week to just have a family meal together or an evening together.

What do you think? Is the empty nest syndrome starting on me? Have you been through this with your kids? Do you have a suggestion?

Here are my thougths.

• I can't stress over it. That only makes our times together more stressful because I tend to want to cram everything in.
• Put back up the family calendar on the frig for everyone to write their weekly schedule down. Once the week is scheduled out, pick a night for everyone to sit and have supper together.
• Once a month, plan a fun event for the family. We all love movies, we love go carts, we love eating out at special restaurant, etc. Plan a time out that we will all enjoy and we can continue to make memories together.
• This is a big one. Don't complain about the lack of time together. My children keep telling me that I make them feel guilty if they are busy and can't hang out. That spills over into the next time that we can hang out. I have to stop that. It is not healthy for our family. My husband is precious, he recognizes that I struggle in this area and he tries to help me through my feelings.

It is so much easier when your kids still depend on you. It is so much easier when you dictate the schedules. But we raise our children to be strong adults and if we don't let them start when still living at home, then we are clipping their wings before they even choose to leave and fly.

I am so thankful that my husband sees this in full color and not through a moms eyes. We are Ntandem on this but I am taking the back seat and he is pulling me through this.