Week 9. The title for this week is a bit tongue-in-cheek. Crazy to calm in 9 minutes! Somehow that seems a bit too long, doesn’t it? Or maybe it feels a bit too short–how can I learn how to do that in 9 minutes? The change isn’t so much about the people as it is about the structure. A 9-minute structure change creates calm.
Here’s how. Or maybe better said, here’s when.
The crazy? It happens in lots of places. But one place it shows up again and again? Getting out the door. Whether our little one is 9 months old or 9 years old, the 9 minutes before leaving the house is full of crazy. Kids cry. Melting down right in front of the door. They can’t find their left shoe. How can an entire shoe be missing? Yet it is. Never mind homework or backpacks or sports bags or…you know it. You live it. And you know what happens to us during that time as well. We say and do things we regret in those last 9 minutes. We bark. We yell. We get exasperated to the point of craziness.
And it happens again and again.
So let’s plan for change. Plan for calm. It starts with us. If we need to be leaving at 8:00 a.m., that means kids out the door, in the car, and backing out of the driveway at 8:00 a.m. In order for that to happen, it means we need to plan to be buckling every seat belt at 7:51 a.m. And if 7:51 a.m. is buckle time, opening the door to herd everyone out is just before that. That is your new go time. Your new mental clock. When you used to say to the kids we need to be ready at 8, now it’s we need to be ready at 7:51 a.m. 9 minutes early.
The goal has shifted. The go time has changed. And you have to throw your whole heart into it, otherwise it won’t work. You’ll let things stretch because you know you don’t really have to be leaving until 8.
But here’s the thing.
Knowing we have to leave at 8 and actually leaving at 8 are two completely different things. If they were the same, we wouldn’t be crazy. So shift the goal. Embrace the 9. That way, when you think 7:51 a.m. and there is a missing jacket, you’ve got seconds to breathe. To play hide-and-seek with the dang thing and find it. And still be buckled. And calm. And backing out by 8 a.m.
Give it a test drive. Tell me how it goes. 9 minutes to calm. Think how glorious it will be.
More details? More examples? absolutely. all right here in the audio extra. xoxo.
Want to go back and review?
week 8 was for ? x 8.
week 7 was for 7 deadly parenting sins.
week 6 was for let’s talk about 6.
week 5 was for 5 moments to enjoy.
week 4 was for 4 out the door.
week 3 was for 3 Mississippi.
week 2 was for 2 gratitudes.
week 1 was for 1 ladybug sized thing.