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Stay-at-home Moms with Toddlers
A Survival Guide to Help Keep Your Days a Little Less Stressful
By Shannon McKelden
Barrett also recommends planning breaks, which don't have to be elaborate. "Things to break up the day can be as simple as bath time or going for a stroll," Barrett says. "This is helpful in keeping total meltdowns to a minimum."
Mary Castillo, mom to a 20-month-old son, agrees. "I've learned to cope by making sure we get out of the house at least once a day," says Castillo, a writer from Newport Beach, Calif. "Even when it rains, we go to an indoor mall. One thing I didn't realize was that these little people get bored, too."
If you can't get out of the house every day, even once a week gives everyone something to look forward to.
Fun activities make your days more pleasant and keep your toddler active and happy. Sometimes things can be made fun just by acting like they are.
"Try to show that you, as the parent, are enjoying the activity and show pleasure upon accomplishing whatever it is that you are doing," Dr. Arinoldo says. "One can sing a song while doing the task, play rhyming games, recite nursery rhymes, play counting or 'name the color' types of games." Don't forget the stars or stickers for the job well done!
Some stay-at-home moms are also work-at-home moms. With a toddler around, this can be especially challenging. Again, turning work into fun can do the trick.
Shirley Jump, a work-at-home mother of two from Fort Wayne, Ind., devised a system to make things easier on her and her kids. "I wrote when my kids were toddlers and learned quickly to keep an office within my office, just for them," she says. "Invariably, they always wanted to do whatever Mom was doing, so I set up a box inside my office filled with play versions of what I had. They had their own paper, markers, scissors, clipboard, board books, play telephone – you name it, if it was related to an office, they had it in there. That way, whenever they followed me into my office and wanted to 'work' with me, they had all their own materials and didn't have to use mine."
