South Florida Children

My wife needed to spend some time with her mother and it has been over 3 weeks now. Thats the longest Dad has been on his own with the kids ever, thats the longest the kids have been without one parent in a long time for that matter. Dad has had some mini vacations from the family that were longer than a month but they were not very fun trips. When it first came about that I would have the kids it was upfront a month long trip and I was excited from the start. My sons and I have a great relationship and we spend a lot of time together with me working from home but that’s just it, I’m often times working.

I get to watch as they run by, or I can hear them having fun around the house but I’m stuck with my face in this laptop pecking away at the days chores. I don’t spend full days on the computer very often any longer but when I do it’s a full 12 hour day and I don’t even stop to eat or sleep sometimes. Well you can’t do that and still raise two boys on your own. I was forced to sycn my schedule to theirs and it’s been a trick to manage for sure. Dad likes to take naps but the youngest one hasn’t had a nap in weeks. He’s a ball of energy all day until he burns out in the early evening now and I get to keep up with him and still try to answer an email or two.

Now I get to take over full time education, entertainment and of course my regular duties as financial support as well as mommies duties like doodies and dinner. It’s been a real trick but I’ve worked out a very smooth schedule with the kids and we’re actually growing much closer because of it. I realized fast communication was going to be the key. Robby is only 2 for a few more days and he’s got the vocabulary of a 4 year old. He’s rolling along with full sentences and now full paragraphs as he runs me ragged around the yard playing soccer, swimming in the deep water off the beach here and of course play wrestling with me and his older brother. Robby is a tough one and loves to fight and he’ll wear you down fast if you give him the chance. I always expect him to burn out but it goes on longer and longer each day it seems.

AJ, my older son, is all good with things as long as I give him his tv and Xbox time. It’s gotten a bit too much lately and I’ve been pushing him more to the games at least. I have no idea how others feel about autistic children and television or video games but I much prefer the games over just watching a tv show or dvd. Of course neither of them compares to real time with real people but can anyone offer that constant and consistent? we used television to bring AJ out of his shell and we’re still using it to communicate with him on some things but he’s grown way patst that now. The video game has become a social center at times with 2 or 3 local children popping in to play games and AJ has had to learn a number of lessons from sharing to friendship and respect over the Xbox and his favorite game Spongbob Squarepants: The Movie.

If managed properly I think both the tv and xbox have a place in his homeschool educational program. The trick is limiting his time entertaining and enhancing the educating. He can’t just play games all day but I do prefer the unschooling approach with AJ as it seems to work best in most cases so when he does want to play then I interact with him. He isn’t allowed to just play the game, he has to talk to me and explain to me what he’s doing in the game as he plays if he wants it to stay on. If he’s jumping he needs to tell me that he’s jumping and also what he’s jumping over. It pushes him to think quick and I’m seeing better results from him. He’s become more engaged in conversations and has begun to ask more questions about the game. He also shows more interest in other games like dads car racing game and some others so we’ve spent a lot of time this summer playing video games. Probably not as much as we spent sitting in the water at a beach but thats ok.

My work is what suffered the most. During the first two weeks I could barely manage to grab a minute online to answer my emails. I have been short and sweet and to the point with everyone and everything this past few weeks and lots of emails simply got dumped because I didn’t have time to respond to them. In the past couple days I’ve worked my sleep schedule to groove with the kids. I’ve settled into a routine with the kids and filled in the blanks like brushing teeth and keeping up with the laundry. I taught Robby how to wipe properly and dropped that responsibility. Now I just make sure he gets a good bath at least twice a day and it keeps the scratches and cuts on him from becoming infected. The boy is a rough and tough one. I’m back too writing online and managing my sites again. I’m prone to dropping work when we move to a new place and I swore I would not do that here and I am. I need to refocus my work efforts and maintain the current pace with the kids. I’m updating this site and a list of others, I am also looking for bloggers that want to earn some cash for writing with us so if you lke to write send me an email.

I’m about to enroll them in the school here but I need to wait on some records we missed from the school in Florida. It’s a school program but I’m using it to supplement their homeschooling while I buy myself some time during the day to deal with the new business ideas I have. Working from home and raising kids is enough with two parents I have no idea how other single parents do it. My respect to you all that manage working from home and kids. It’s a blessing you have to work for. Homeschooling the kids, working from home and doing it alone is all a pleasure that I would not trade for anything.