Isn’t Christmastime lovely? And doesn’t winter really stink once Christmas is over?
Here are a few myths that are planted in children’s minds during a holiday vacation that are very hard (yea, even painful) to extract once the holiday is over:
1. Everytime you turn around you will have a new present. (Before you judge my parenting, please know that while I am a contributor to this and the other myths, it’s not all my fault. There are generous family and friends everywhere, and things just get out of control!)
2. You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want it, and candy for breakfast is fine.
3. We will spend our days thinking of fun things to do together.
4. All chores and routines are pretty much out the window.
5. There are lots of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other loved ones available anytime you want to play a game or otherwise need assistance.
I’m sure there are other myths too (feel free to add your own to the list), but these are the ones that haunt me the most now that we’re back to real life.
My children are convinced that I am the Grinch, Scrooge, and the Snow Witch combined because I will not let their mythical expectations continue unchecked. It’s like they’ve completely forgotten how to put clothes in the hamper, clear their dishes, put everything they need in their backpacks every day, do chores and homework, entertain themselves, OBEY, and speak to me without complaining about how unfair their life is.
Someone tell me this will get better soon because I’m thinking about canceling the holidays next year. Do they make Christmas rehab?
Diapers and Divinity 
Having not only had the holidays, but then going on a cruise right afterward, I am about ready to leave my children on the side of the road.
Christmas rehab sounds really, really wonderful. Where do I sign up?
yeah… I am all for the Christmas rehab! We are struggling with the no candy for breakfast part particularly… and I feel as though I am doomed to have a child that will never obey me. I NEED someone to tell me it gets better.
I have a child whose solution to not having something is “We buy that…” uhm, what? I guess I was a little pre-occupied with Dal’s Christmas present in the weeks leading up to Christmas and just gave her whatever she wanted.
Yeah. Weve got that 4 sick kids. No one is sick enough to sleep and be quiet, but they’re plenty sick enough to whine, fight, puke, and stay home from school. I hate January.
Oh good, I thought it was just MY kids. I’m thinking some sort of boot camp is in order…
Fair…what’s fair? We aren’t allowed to say that word in our house! 🙂
Oh my yes. That’s exactly how it’s been around here the last couple weeks. I’m pretty sure the best solution is duct tape but Neil’s too much of a whuss to go along with it.
So here’s what you do. You stay home. Nobody visits you. The kids keep their normal routine except occasionally staying up late. PROBLEM SOLVED!!
That’s what we did. It works. 🙂 (and we still had a great holiday, except for missing family)
Oh, I see where you went wrong. It was in having a routine in the first place. Silly girl. Just live in absolute chaos and then they don’t crave it anymore. Works around here, anyway.
Yep, I agree with LisAway… we kept our normal routine pretty much, but not by choice — we were all so sick we couldn’t go anywhere and didn’t want to eat lots of goodies… 😦
Now we’re better and just happy to be here.
Maybe you could wean them off the holidays? I don’t know, maybe every Friday in January could be a party of sorts with goodies and games and just a little later bedtime… Then on Saturday morning (at 6 am — just kidding) you could tell them it’s time to CLEAN! They had their fun, now they’ve gotta pay for it! ha ha ha
I’d add this to the list. ‘It is okay to stay up late every night of the holidays and watch movies, play wii, and then sleep in.’
It was tough getting back into a routine…
Amen to the LATE nights and the sleeping in. We all had a very rude awakening when school started. One thing that was nice, though, was having family scriptures @ 10:00 a.m. instead of 6:30 in the morning! But now that we’re in the routine, again, it’s also nice to read scriptures when the children are subdued!
Thankfully, they do make Christmas rehab. It’s called New Year’s Resolutions.