A case of the Mondays

Does anyone else find that Mondays are either the worst day ever or the best day? Worst day due to kids getting back on routine, crabby if they didn't sleep well etc. Best day if they are super tired and sleep really well and are super happy to be back.

Today is the worst kind. It is days like this I wish I had a colleague to vent to/roll my eyes to or even to trade off for 5 mins. All the kids are tired, crying/crabby and whiny today. They were also super hungry and just had a difficult time with everything e.g. cleaning up, getting their shoes on, going potty etc etc...This is my last week before my vac starts and need it! Thankfully they are all sound asleep now.

Mondays are like that yes - parents have the kids so busy on the weekends naps are screwed up if they even get one and by the time they get to my house on Monday they are sort of glassy eyed and sit like lumps in the playroom half the time.

I just treat Monday like a vacation day of sorts. I plan nothing, serve grilled cheese and fruit - not making cranky kids whine about meat and veggies they don't want to eat. Lunch is over and kids are in bed no later than 11:30 on a Monday and allowed to sleep a full 3 hours if they want so they can catch up - which still means up by 3 pm.

On the weekend I put certain toys with lots of parts up and only bring down under supervision or if a child seems ready. Makes clean up better since really they don't play with anything anyways just move the pieces around. Their imagination is nil, the listening is not registering and well better to just plan around it then get annoyed and so far it works - and I like my extra part holiday.

A bit of both here on Mondays... Negative is that kids arrive cranky, edgy, defiant and clearly over tired. Most if not all have a diaper rash. I am with Playfelt, plan an easy lunch that they will eat and not play with, we did morning nap earlier 8-10 instead of 8:30-9:30 which is typical for Mondays instead of 1 hour we do 2 hours. We did free play in and outside and even a baby einstein dvd while I prepped lunch. Now its naptime again for 2 hours and I may even have to wake them all up at 3:00. Mondays are my LOW key days. I kinda like them actually.

Every Monday the children are extra tired and some are cranky. My trick is that we have the same outing every single Monday, we go to our local library to play with their toys and attend their 1/2 hour story time. It's a 20 minute walk each way or a bus ride, but either way it's a full morning out. Then I feed them a big lunch and they sleep 2 1/2-3 hours which is more than they sleep the rest of the week, their usual 2 hours. It works great. The children look forward to coming to daycare on Monday and they know what will be happening.

I have a case of the Mondays but thankfully its Friday today!