Discipline and rythm

It has been quite a transition this spring time; because of the change in rythm, and temperatures, we have been having some discipline problems, especially on Mondays when everything has to settle down again for workdays.....One of my challenges when the house is overwhelmingly untidy and the children unwilling to cooperate, is to hold my temper and not be angry. Over the years I have used many things to overcome that, but mainly two systems have defeated time: first to dissipate my anger by singing one song, if it is a daughter I sing the first one, if it is my son, I sing the second one. This allows me to calm down and redirect the bad behavior in a more objective way....

Once there was a girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead, and when she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid.

Georgey Porgey, pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry, when the boys came out to play, Georgey Porgey ran away.


The second thing I use nowadays is to go for a walk, take all the children out to the field or park nearby and think about the way to improve the situation for the next time.

When I do not do one of these, my discontentment escalates and I become an angry mother for the next hour, until everything is tidy and the children are obeying again. This leads me with uncomfortable remorse, because I know I should be doing it in a different way....Next time a Monday comes, I am going to call to Mary, to ask her to be by my side and help me with the chaos, and besides that I am looking into reordering my Sundays as to not loose so much of the reins over the weekend.

This is our plan for the summer weekly rythm:

Monday: Laundry day
Tuesday: Ironing day
Wednesday: Cleaning day/playdate
Thursday: Baking day/community works
Friday: Theatre camp at the park
Saturday: Farmer's market/cleaning day-cooking day
Sunday: Church/potluck/study

Another factor that increases lack of discipline is also my involvement with things other than the home, as much as I enjoy being part of groups and doings things, once I step away from homemaking duties, it seems like the children start to wander off too.

Lately we have been working in the charcoal drawing for the community meal, and even though it is great to see the little ones imitating me in something different from our routine, it is also dissipating our calm atmosphere at home. I wonder how to accomplish a balance, where there is some input from the outside but we can keep the strength of the walls of our home. Perhaps the above weekly rythm is already too loose, and it will need to be changed!

But one thing is sure for us, the better the order and rythm, the fewer discipline problems, and the less times we have to recourse to punishments or other ways for correcting behavior. I think this is also true in plain living, where the days follow like rain in a field, drop by drop in a uniform rythm.