How to Survive Arsenic Hour

It can get crazy between 4 and 6 p.m.

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The hours between 4 and 6 p.m. can get a little crazy for households with young children (or even medium and old children). Blood sugar is low and the frustrations of the day can spill over into short tempers and unreasonable demands. What's a mom to do?

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Good night's sleep
Smoothie ingredients

Step1

Begin preparations for surviving Arsenic Hour the evening before. Not only do you need to get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour (8:00 or earlier, if possible), but you need to get yourself in bed early, especially if there's a good chance that a small someone might wake you up in the night.

Step2

Get some exercise early in the day. Take a walk or put on a workout DVD. Don't count vacuuming, driving or dusting as exercise. You need bona fide, move-your-body exercise in order to survive Arsenic Hour.

Step3

Eat well. It's tempting at 2:30 to reach for the refined sugar because you know the pick-me-up will be immediate and satisfying. But if you binge on cookies at 2:30, your blood sugar level will be appallingly low at 4:00, just when you need a pick-me-up the most. Eat healthy snacks during the day. Choose fruit, cheese, veggies, whole grain crackers or bread or something with protein in it.

Step4

Make a smoothie. When the noise level gets high, the blender is a clever reminder to the unruly natives that you, the mom, can make some serious noise yourself. Any smoothie recipe will do, but this one has been found to smooth everyone out and keep some from saying "I'm hungry" a zillion times while you're cooking dinner:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup yogurt
1 banana
1 cup strawberries
2 Tbsp. almond meal
1 Tbsp. sunflower seed meal
2 tsp. wheat germ

Blend until smooth or until the noise of the blender has quieted everyone else in the house.

Tips & Warnings

A cupboard full of toys in the kitchen might help kids feel more a part of dinner preparations.
Give them jobs to do if they're bored. Sometimes they just want to feel a part of the action.
Don't forget your baby backpack for dinner preparation. Watching the soup simmer over your shoulder is infinitely more interesting than watching your feet move around the kitchen floor.
Alcohol won't help.

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Comments

CrunchyMama said

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on 5/13/2008 "Arsenic hour" LOL! I fix a plate of raw chopped veggies and put it on the table while I'm finishing dinner. (You could add dip, too, or fruit.) My toddler is so hungry by then that she usually slurps them down. If she fills up on veggies instead of dinner, I'm okay with that! And it keeps her out of the kitchen and out from underfoot.

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