One thing about being a mom – you start to realize all the things you are modeling for your kids that you wish you weren’t. Whether its picking up your socks, fussing at people in traffic, or putting your elbows on the table – we all have something that we do, but that we tell our kids not to do.
But when we are both in school, you also get to model study habits. Uh-oh!
A large part of my schoolwork is done after the kids go to bed, so they don’t always see me doing it. But then there are times when I’ve put off some work and am left squeezing in reading or writing into every spare minute. And I’m usually in bad mood then. And the kids know it – there is no fooling them!
So it makes it all the harder to talk to my son about procrastinating in his own work. As a fourth grader, he is entering a world of projects that are due a couple of weeks away. He is just starting to learn how to break it down, make a work plan, and get it done little by little.
But knowing how to do it, and actually doing it are two different things! Of course I KNOW how plan things out. I rock at that! You should see my assignment planner – it is a beauty! And anyone who follows the plans I develop would be on top of things and enjoying a stress free life. And it would be easy to blame it on all the unexpected things that come up (like the 2 dozen cupcakes that one of the kids told me about on Sunday evening). But the truth of the matter is, I probably would have been updating my Facebook then anyway. I’ve got some study habits that I need to revisit.
So we’re working on this together. I can admit to myself that I need to get back to the basics of not procrastinating. But its nice to be able to hide behind the cover of “I’m working with my fourth grader on it.”
After all, its all about the kids, right?
