Overtired

Recently I was at my college reunion and I was talking with another mom about overtiring. What non-parents do not realize is that it is very important not to over tire the kids. If you do over tire them, you end up with a tired child who then is cranky and still will not sleep. I have come up with a system that seems to work for my kids. I believe you take the kids out, you can do one morning activity and one afternoon activity. An activity can be going grocery shopping, going to the park or going to story time. You can pair these outings with one brief other stop like picking one item up at the store but you have to keep it very brief. Generally when I stick to this I have very few tantrums and three kids who are tired enough to go to sleep but no so tired they are a mess. However, some days there will be tantrums no matter what. Right now I am stuck in the period between the end of the school year and summer. The problem with this time is many of the story times are canceled and if it is rainy there is very little to do. So Miss G my two year old is a bit bored and is dying to get out more. It will be nice when the summer activities are in full swing.