I worked from home for 8 years. My office was the playroom, a 13 x 15 room painted with green grass, blue skies and a sun wearing sunglasses. It was my brightly coloured plastic world.
By the end of my 8 years at home I longed to be out of that playroom, away from plastic, away from sitting on the floor and more importantly, away from being a prisoner in my own home. So when I got the job with the school board I was ecstatic. I stepped out of that playroom on my last 'official' day of work at the end of June and vowed I would not step foot into it again.
Wow - did I ever keep that promise. The extent of my interaction with that room has been to throw toys back in there that have migrated out during the day and to get Connor's purple 'time out' chair when he misbehaves. I even stopped cleaning it. It became Mary's job in order to earn her allowance.
Unfortunately it's starting to show, in more way that one. The room is a disaster area - putting it mildly. It's dusty and there are toys everywhere (Mary's not the best tidier) But worse yet, Connor has lost the ability to play productively. He throws his toys, he kicks them around and then comes out and nags to play on Starfall or Wii. And when he gets bored or kicked off of them he goes back to throwing toys.
And yet, at daycare he plays productively, tidies his messes and behaves as he did when I had the daycare here.
And so, my year of being out of the playroom has come to an end. Connor will be officially withdrawn from daycare in two short weeks. And then he'll be home all day. As will I. Judging by how our weekends are going, I need to get him back onto track with being focused, having fun and being productive. I need to rethink the playroom set up, the amount of toys and how it can meet his needs (and mine) In short, it's back to work I go.
Wish me luck, it looks like it might be an uphill battle.
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