Dreaded Hours of 4pm-6pm

Whether you're a working Mom or a Stay at Home Mom, I can almost guarantee we all can relate to the dreaded time frame of 4:00PM-6:00PM. This is the time during the day where our child (or children) seem to  absolutely lose it. Whether you've just gotten home to relieve the nanny, just picked your child up from daycare or you're just trying to make dinner, we are all faced with similar scenarios of over the top, dramatically cranky little people. They are hungry, sleepy and exhausted from their day, and whether it's your first time seeing them since early that morning or you've been with them all day, they really don't seem to care. Eventually we start to feel like we're losing our minds along with them. Poor hubby's probably feel like the whole household has gone nuts, he might even start to feel a little nuts himself. Reality is, this is just how it is, our little angels have been so busy all day that during this time it feels to them how we might feel at 10pm. So, how do we overcome it? Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to that, I certainly wish I did. In my opinion I feel it's all about how we manage our time. The biggest lesson I've learned this past year as a new Momma is to try and avoid unwanted situations. And what I mean by that is to try to recognize what triggers certain outcomes and if we want to create a different outcome avoid those triggers. For instance, when I'm attempting to cook dinner between 4-6 it creates the worst outcome for us. Elijah will hang onto my legs, cry to me "up, up", gets into drawers, terrorize the dogs etc. And when I tell him he is not to be in the kitchen (a rule I've been trying to enforce, for what seems like forever) he cries or falls into complete tantrum mode. Now, thankfully this doesn't happen every evening, partly because sometimes he's perfectly content in playing with his toys just long enough for me to get the food onto the stove, partly because Dad is home to help distract, and partly because sometimes I'm actually successful in avoiding the situation all together. For me I have found Crock Pots and preparing dinners earlier to have worked wonders. This way I'm not busy when he starts to melt down and I can attend to him rather than shooing him out of the kitchen. I also have come to realize that it doesn't always happen this way. Whether it's because the day was busy and preparing dinner early simply just didn't happen, or I was at work for most of the day and so dinner became last on the agenda, or I was feeling lazy, we are always thrown for a loop if the schedule is altered. And lets face it, it's usually always altered in one way or another. Either way, it's inner strength we have to find and it's a day by day process. If there's a tantrum, it comes and then it goes and  they eventually go to sleep; even if it's hours later, at some point they sleep. We constantly are shown that what worked yesterday may not necessarily work today. It can feel like a losing battle at times, but if you're a Momma out there feeling like what I've described; know that you're not alone and that there's at least me out here feeling the same way.