Creating a Calm Atmosphere

There have been days when the kids are almost literally climbing the walls. Simultaneously my patience level decreases while my temper rises. It's surprising, I know, being the worlds most patient mom is a tough job... ;) I have observed though, that when I have soft music playing in the background that an almost magical transformation occurs (almost 100% of the time). My little darlings calm down and act like the sweet children I know they are.

So far it seems that you get pretty much the same results from any soft music, whether it be church hymns, instrumental with no voices, or something like Enya where you can't always understand what they are saying anyway.

Once the peaceful calm falls over your house, it sure makes it easier to do things like think. Oh, and leaving the t.v. and computer games off will help - that way you don't have the radio trying to compete with them as well.

Funny thing too is that the opposite occurs when playing loud rock-like music. The kids can quickly turn into half-crazed Monkey Mexican-jumping beans. Try it sometime - it'll make you feel like Pavlov doing experiments on his dogs... blow a whistle and give them a treat when they do the correct behavior. (I'm not really suggesting you should do this - would be sorta funny if you did though.)