Mom Thought - Epitome of Multi-Tasking

As I try to get this blog back up and running, I'm fielding questions from Thing 4, like, "Please can we read this book?", "Is Santa coming in December?", "Here's a letter for him." "Are the kids almost home?", "Hey, Mommy look at this!", "Mommy, why is my finger white?" and it keeps going, on and on and on and on.

I'm playing online games, mentally preparing myself for the invasion of Thing 2 and Thing 3 coming home and therefore the routine of emptying backpacks, hanging up jackets, snacks, homework, chores. Then Thing 1 comes home and the snack/homework/chore thing happens again. Then I'll add in getting dinner going, all the while I'm checking the homework/chores, still playing my online games (need an escape, right?), still answering the endless stream of questions from Thing 4 (I wonder if she'll ever know that it's not normal for a 60 second delay between question and answer?) hoping I don't give her permission to burn the house down or something else just as drastic and dangerous as I'm only giving her a small amount of my attention.

I believe that womanfolk in general have a great ability to multi-task. If my husband is any example, men in general lack this ability (evidenced by the fact that he at one time did give permission for a small child to play with a sharp knife!). But I also think that there is a cost associated with this ability. While I'm in multi-task mode, no one or nothing gets my undivided attention. This can lead to mistakes being made, feelings being hurt, miscommunications, etc. I think it would be better to do less multi-tasking and give everyone and everything the attention it deserves. Maybe that means that I play less online games (or only play them when everyone else is otherwise occupied). Maybe it means making a schedule where I know what the priority of the day is at any given time. I'm open to suggestions on how to do less multi-tasking and relieving some stress!

I think that by slowing down, it benefits everyone. Kids feel special because they know they have my full attention. Projects get finished because they've had my full attention. I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to eliminate multi-tasking altogether, but I think I can make improvements. I don't need to be Super Mom able to do everything without ever getting a hair out of place, never saying no to anyone, always perfect in appearance and attitude...it's not going to happen even if I wanted it to.

I'm going to make it a goal to seek out ways to lessen my multi-tasking. Who's with me? I'm pretty sure the world won't come to a crashing halt if we all slow down a bit...I mean, just think of all the houses we can save by listening to the preschooler and not giving them permission to burn it down!