fairfarmhand Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 My oldest dd just spend 8 straight days with my MIL. I'm glad she got the opportunity, but my word, re-entry is a PAIN! How do ya'll help your kids get back into the routine of normal (boring) life after a period of partying? For my dd she's been relentlessly spoiled with whatever she wanted to eat, whenever she wanted to eat it, watching whatever she wanted on TV without having to give anyone else a turn, not having to share attention with any other siblings, etc.... I want to enjoy her being home but she is not being so very pleasant today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 If she were mine, I'd sit her down and have a discussion with her. Talk about how nice it was she got to visit grandma. She got to go b/c we assumed she was old enough/mature enough to handle it. And we assumed that she was mature enough to handle the transition back into the family. I'd let her know that we expect people in our family to treat each other nicely, and if her trip has affected her ability to do this, then perhaps she's really not old enough for such trips and we'd keep that in mind for the next time.... All said very nicely and calmly.... :D Anne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalknot Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 My oldest dd just spend 8 straight days with my MIL. I'm glad she got the opportunity, but my word, re-entry is a PAIN! How do ya'll help your kids get back into the routine of normal (boring) life after a period of partying? For my dd she's been relentlessly spoiled with whatever she wanted to eat, whenever she wanted to eat it, watching whatever she wanted on TV without having to give anyone else a turn, not having to share attention with any other siblings, etc.... I want to enjoy her being home but she is not being so very pleasant today. :D I empathize. My mom helps me raise my kids, so she doesn't get to do 'that' type of grandmothering. Their dad's mom, on the other hand .... has raised 'that' type of grandmothering to an art! My kids visit together for a total of six weeks over the year (three, two-week intervals) and then they each visit for individual visits throughout the year. I love that they're close with these people, but man oh man do I ever dread the week after their return home. Re-entry is painful. For all of us, for different reasons. I usually give the kids 1-2 days to decompress and get back into routine. After about 48 hours, my joy at having them back is no longer sufficient to mask my irritation at their bratty behavior, and all systems resume normalcy. The first few days I might get take out for meals, do a park day, or other type of gentle welcome back. If we do school, it's a read-aloud, fun activity, or video/game type of thing. I travel for a living, and to be honest - need that decompression barrier to get back into the swing of things at home. I figure the kids probably do, too, especially considering they go from being Queen at Gram's to Plebe at Mom's LOL. We always have The Talk, too. Same 'lecture' each kid can recite almost verbatim. Basically: we have different roles at different places. When I'm home being mom, I'm expected to do x, y, and z. When I'm at work as an employee, I'm expected to do q, r, and s. When I'm at my mom's home (their grandma), a, b, and c are expected of me. When I'm at my friend's home, m, n, and o are expected of me. Et cetera. Then to bring it on home, when they're at MY house I expect j, k, and l of them. They can do d, e, f and t, u, v at Grandmother's house but I'm not grandma, and this ain't grandma's house. It's just how life goes! I'd give her a day or so to decompress and charge down from what must have been an exciting but tiring visit with grandma. Tell her ahead of time that she has x-time to wind down, and that on y-day we're going back to our normal routine of this, that, and the other. I take lots of showers on those decompression days LOL. Whenever I start to get annoyed at my kids and then annoyed with their grandparents for sending home little monsters ... I hop in the shower and decompress myself! Sometimes with a glass of wine ;) or three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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