Be a Better Parent Challenge - Day 10 - Be the fun one

Yesterday's Be a Better Parent Challenge - Day 9 - Find your triggers 
was an easy one. I already knew most of my triggers but had forgotten to lost one very important one. When Mommy's monthly friend is visiting ( Mommy is extra tired, crampy, moody, migraney) that is certainly a trigger fro me. I have no tolerance for anything or anybody. Even when I try to step away from the situation and be aware, I can't. I just want to be left alone in my misery. How do I remedy this? I try to be tolerant, work it so the kids can got o bed earlier and I think if I plan ahead and fill the it me that keeps them occupied and relieves me of the need to think spontaneously on those occasions, it might help. I'm trying it today! How did it work for you?

Today's Be a Better Parent Challenge - Day 10 - Be the fun one I am so ready for this one.Usually Daddy gets to bet he fun one. With my husband being out of town a lot, I have to be the enforcer and the one to keep the schedule.He gets to come home and have fun. After having to do everything and be the schedule nazi/ punishment enforcer, it gets hard for me to be the fun one because I am so use to being regimented and so tired from having to exert all of that energy being the tyrant Mommy. Not today, Today, Grandma ChaCha is visiting and I have planed a day of fun with Grandma....shopping, lunch, ( oh, its supposed to be fun for them?)....park, pool, splash pad and a whole lotta Grandma ChaCha. School starts next week so this is the day we make a bang. I am going to try and make an effort to do more spontaneous ( because you don't want to tell them beforehand or you will be asked about it 1000 times a day until it happens) fun things. I have been known to do the spontaneous ice cream cone but I will get more creative.

Remember that I wouldn't just drop a fantastic trip to the zoo if the kids have been terrorizing Mommy for the last few days. That's not the message you want to send and its reinforcing bad behavior. But if you can find a reason to do something fun, then I say do it! Choose something you'll all enjoy together.

You don't need to spend a lot of money, or even any money - whether it's an ice cream treat after dinner, a trip to the zoo, a fun picnic lunch, a game of Wii, spontaneous trip to the local splash pad, just do something that's FUN. And enjoy it yourself too.