Monday, January 4, 2016

#Tips for Managing Monday


You all are in for a real treat as we kick off 2016 with a GUEST POST from our favorite HouseHUSBAND! MARK KOOPMANS! He's an international man of mystery - and we snagged him in between his travels. Take it away, Mark!

Aloha,

Thanks to Tara, Liz and Ashley for guest posting this week with the Really Real Housewives. (Hey, after me, this blog can only go upwards and onwards for 2016.)

I was a stay-at-home dad for eight years and while things have changed, Mondays were always the most challenging day of the week. Here’s some tips that worked for me, especially when I had three kids out of school:
  • Field Trip Day: Once the boys were playing at the playground, I used the time to make plans for the rest of the week (and avoid stares from other moms who wondered who this male interloper was!)
  • Grocery Shopping: A necessary evil that often turned into, “An extra field trip, kids!” especially when I had to save time.
  • Monday Movie Nights: With the boys staying up later, the threat of pulling Movie nights were a wonderful deterrent to earlier-in-the-day bad behavior.
Mainly though, I used Mondays to prepare for the new week, and here’s one more vitally important thing: Flexibility. This is much needed after discovering the just-cleaned living room is now the new, slimy base of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Without flexibility, rolling into the fetal position for a quick sob can be very bad for the back.)

Mark Koopmans was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. In 1989, he spent the next several years working in Holland, Spain, France and England. In 1994, he won his U.S. "Green Card," and is an American by choice since 2003. Koopmans began his writing career that same year with a feature for a regional magazine in California. Since then, he's worked as a staff writer for newspapers in Florida and Texas. Koopmans is also a proficient blogger and is working on his next book. He lives in Virginia, and is "Papa" to three active boys under the age of nine. He writes at night.

25 comments:

  1. Hi Mark and you three Really Real Housewives of America ... well that could have been dangerous - but I see he's besotted with his own male heirs! Happy New Year to you all ... and success blossoming ahead - cheers Hilary

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    1. Yeah, these three ladies took a big risk allowing some dude into the fold, but I tried to at least behave myself and I never forgot to put the toilet seat down :)

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  2. I loved the picture of Mork curling into a fetal ball and sobbing. Sound like pretty good tips to me though.

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    1. Oh, it's been done... Not lately, but it has happened!!

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  3. What Jo said!
    I can't imagine getting anything done with three boys around. I'd be in fetal position all the time.

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    1. Once I discovered the true ability to multi-task, a light shone at my head (it was the police) and I was able to manage things much better :)

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  4. Thanks, Ashley, Liz and Tara:) This is fun :)

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  5. I love the idea of holding Movie Nights hostage! Esp if your house is as movie-crazy as mine is. It's appropriately evil without being mean :-)
    Thanks for joining us this week!!

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    1. Thanks for having me! (And yes, we must retain control until the kids realize, hey... we have rights and opinions, too :)

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  6. A perfect choice for a guest on this first post of the new year. Stay at home dad's have great ideas! Congrats, Mark. Here's to a wonderful 2016 for you and those boys.

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    1. Thanks, Lee :) Here's to a happy New Year to you and yours, too :)

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  7. Movie night, game night, and taco night were always favorites in our household - still are! Great suggestions. Wow, three under nine - I don't envy you that task! :)

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    1. I love movie nights, and while things have recently changed, my life as a stay-at-home Dad will always me my favorite memories :)

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  8. Smiling here. And retirement means that Mondays are fine again. It even means I can go out when there are less people around.
    I suspect assuming the foetal ball position kept you flexible - physically AND mentally.

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    1. The fetal position was mostly used so I'd be small and the boys couldn't find me... for 23.7 seconds :)

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  9. Ha, and field trips come with their own special challenges - namely the ones to the grocery store. Seems like you had it handled pretty well :)

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    1. OMG.. I LOVE field trips... sometimes I even return with the same amount of children as I left with* (*They may not be the same kids, but at least the inventory matches :)

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  10. I used to teach at a school for at-risk teenagers, and flexibility was the key there, too. Very seldom did I actually get through a lesson plan as I had actually planned it.

    Great post, Mark!

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    1. Thanks, and I LOVE Teachers.. you veterans and current ones.. By gosh, you all deserve medals (of pure gold, too :)

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  11. Plans with three kids. You brave, brave parent. I loved being at home with my kids but I would always wait for my husband to come home so I could go shopping alone or with only one child.

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    1. Haha!! I know the "joy" of going shopping alone :)

      (But why does it take a quarter of the time?? :)

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  12. Welcome Mark!!

    So, the grocery store as a field trip? My husband always had that philosophy. Please tell me you didn't allow them to play hide and seek in the toilet paper racks too...

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    1. My boys played in any available shelf :)

      The famous story is one day, the ketchup aisle was like EMPTY in the middle.. for no reason.. #1 Son looked at me, and I said "Do it!" So I whipped out the camera while he laid out, full-length in this ketchup aisle :)

      It's an awesome picture.

      I don't condone the taking of this picture at all.

      Well...

      Maybe a little :)

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  13. We utilised internet grocery shopping when our kids were young. The day we realised we could leave them home alone was the best day ever! :-)

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  14. Great job, Mark!!!! You're a fab Dad!

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Thanks for stopping by the House!

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