Wednesday 10.4.19, full work day
5:15 up (though woke up hearing Josh doing something downstairs even earlier and had trouble staying asleep, because I was nervous about events to come!). Spend 1 hr writing blog post recapping the prior day — longer than usual!
6:20 shower & feed G. Hand G off to Josh at last possible second as he is finishing getting ready.
6:45 drive
7:15 ACGME site visit! In my GME role, this is a BIG DEAL. The ACGME is essentially the regulatory body of all residency programs, and we are up for continued accreditation. Our visitor arrives promptly. He is very thorough but the experience is not as stressful as I feared. Our current program director is a pro and both he and our administrator did an amazing job with preparation (I helped, but they did more!) and I think the experience went as smoothly as can be expected! Our visitor met with us, the faculty, the residents, and some higher-up administrators. We will find out our official status in the fall.
So, kind of a big day. Also: I’m just really glad I took the plunge and went into GME!
I answered some emails while we had down time, but most of the morning was all Site Visit Stuff.
11:30 we are DONE! drive home (~30 min), because I have an afternoon meeting that is on the other side of my house, and I figured I could get a nagging task done (figuring out August schedule for work while looking @ school calendars).
12:40 drive out to lunch (20 min driving,here) with our PD and administrator to celebrate! Eat a giant cheeseburger + sweet potato fries. Plus two bacon-wrapped dates 🙂
2:40 drive to meeting at hospital ~10 min west of where I live (different than usual site which is about ~30 min east)
3:00 program director meeting. Work on planning orientation schedule. Get about 47237 dates on the calendar for fall and winter 2019-20. My job 100% this kind of long term planning and I am glad I am good at it.
4:45 meeting over! drive home (15 min)
5:00 Kid time! Nanny leaves around ~5:30. Supervise piano practice x 2, FaceTime briefly with my parents + Josh. G seems extra tired and so at 6:45 pm I head upstairs to feed her. Kids watch Vampirina from about 6:45 – 7:30.
7:00 G is in bed. I eat quasi-dinner of mint chocolate chip ice cream (it just felt right) while reading blogs and sending one work email. I briefly consider getting C to work on his ‘homework’ project (I need a family picture and then he has to answer questions; let’s ignore the fact that he is in Pre-K and can’t read so I guess they just want him to copy, or write letters one by one as I tell him?) — and decide to table it for a night when Josh is home with me. Or possibly never. (PRE-K ‘assignments’ do not make me happy.)
7:30 One of my oldest childhood friends is on Jeopardy! We were longtime family friends, pen pals, and around age 9 or 10 I used to take Amtrek to Washington DC to visit her on my own, which felt incredibly glamorous and exciting.
A&C begrudgingly agree to watch with me but I think they ended up enjoying watching me try to answer the questions (sometimes I was right . . . and sometimes not 🙂 ) . She came in 2nd — the winner is literally setting records (here!) but she held her own against him for quite some time!
8:00 Big kid bedtime begins. Teeth, books, etc. Sticker chart helps — although yesterday a reader pointed out this article. I get what it is saying, but . . . we have been struggling lately and the charts seem to help. Similar techniques are used at school and A in particular responds very well to them. I am framing it less as “you get a great prize if you behave” and more “if you want the privilege of getting to use the iPad for a number of minutes on Saturday, you are required to do X, Y, Z”. Maybe there’s a distinction there?
8:45 big kids asleep. I am too tired to even contemplate reading. Josh calls and we talk on phone for ~10 min (he came home sometime overnight, not sure when).
9:00 sleep.
Totals:
Sleep = 7.5 hrs
Work = ~8 hrs (I’m counting the lunch, b/c we discussed work issues for most of it)
Kid time = ~4 hrs
Driving ~100 min
Blog = 1 hr
Exercise = none
Other leisure/relaxation time = ~30 min
6 Comments
I’ve read that Atlantic article–I understand the author’s argument and it definitely made me question my own approach… Nonetheless, I have found that my children (5 and 3.5) are motivated by a clearly articulated agreement about what they need to do in order to retain the privilege of watching one TV show or using an iPad. Charts didn’t work well for my kids when we were potty training but now that they’re a bit older we’re having success with a short checklist of reasonable expectations that must be met. Do what works!
That article is interesting! My kids don’t seem to care at all about sticker charts so we’ve never used them for more than a day or so. I say – it’s probably not forever so do what works for you and your kids. Sanity is important!
We usually end up using charts or other “bribes” short term to get a behavior on track that has gone way off the rails (currently “points” for various tasks of getting ready and out the door to school in the morning WITHOUT fighting or whining) and then phase them out. I keep wanting to do something tied to screen time with that, but right now they get a set amount on the weekend if they put away their laundry and do their chores.
I’m just curious–I thought you’d moved to be much closer to work? So why are you still doing so much driving? (As someone with a long commute that sucks, I obsess about commutes!)
I’m about 25-30 min now vs 35-45- not that much closer! We moved bc Josh’s job changed.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with the way you’ve framed what the sticker chart is for- they aren’t earning rewards or presents but a privilege.