I think this is going to be one part of having an even larger family that’s going to take some real getting used to because with time right now being my most valuable commodity, it’s painful to see things that used to be quick, little trips now taking up the better part of an afternoon or evening…

Tonight I was going to just take Christopher with me and run to Target for a few groceries – the time was around 6:30-7:00pm. Instead, though, we ended up taking everyone and grabbing dinner first, thus turning what would’ve been a relatively quick 45-minute trip into a 3.5-hour endurance run between getting everyone ready and on the same page to leave to eating dinner, or not eating dinner in Christopher’s case, to wandering aimlessly around Target once I’d officially lost Sara to the baby aisles.

At least David pretty much stayed asleep the entire time we were out, but still, it was exhausting!

And just to be clear, I’m not pointing fingers at anybody, except possibly Father Time for being cruel and unusual when it comes to Time Management for Families. I think it’s just going to really take some getting used to, particularly because A) I’m almost always busy, and so idle or unproductive time can really be frustrating for me; and B) I don’t want our three-kid parenting strategy to always be divide and conquer vs. doing this often mundane things together as a family.

Admittedly for “A”, this is really nothing new – for years I’ve struggled with the same idle anxiety going on vacation and doing weekend things just the two of us, and I’ve found that going someplace else like Disney World helps me to better tell my mind that “It’s family time now – take a chill pill!” 

Actual chill pills have also helped considerably… 😛

Ultimately I guess it all comes down to better planning for the time that you do have, and then also allocating more time for family because it should only make sense that the bigger this family gets, the more time it’s gonna demand! And that alone can be difficult because often times it means dropping other things, or at the very least reprioritizing and doing some a bit quicker to make time to use elsewhere.

Oh, so little to do and so much time to do it in … wait, strike that – reverse it. 😉