Splitting Your Time Between Children as a Single Parent

Since the first weekend in December I have been a single mom. I didn't realize just how tough this was going to be when I agreed to it. I knew it would be tough, but not this tough. The biggest problem I am having is learning how to divide my time up evenly between my two children. We do a lot of things as a family so no one feels singled out, but they also need to have some one on one time as well.

When my husband was here if we weren't doing things as a family then he was usually doing something with one of the kids while I was doing something with the other. I often times feel like the only thing I say to them is "Hold on a minute, I'm busy with Alex." Or it's the other way around. I hate doing that, but there are times when I just can't help it. My son loves to play the Wii and that was something he and his dad did several times a week. Well, I am not good at the Wii nor do I particularly care to play Star Wars Legos or Mario Kart. I will play for him, but then I have my daughter tugging at my sleeve because she's bored. That's when I pull out the Just Dance and we all get to play!

One thing that I enjoy doing and they both love it too is having lunch with the kids. I volunteer at the school two days a week and I usually stay one or both days for lunch. My daughter eats first and that gives us a half hour together where she doesn't have to share me. Then my son eats right after her and he gets his half hour. It works out really well and everyone is happy!

I'm still trying to find that happy medium at home though. I try to give them equal time as much as I can, but sometimes it just isn't possible. One thing I do at bedtime is I'll lie down with one of them first one night and then switch the next night. When I give baths I find something for the other one to do so they aren't in the bathroom bugging each other. Not only that, my kids love to talk while in the tub. This is a great time to figure out how their day went. I'll continue to search until I find something that works for our family. Hopefully soon too because it would make things a lot less hectic around here!