I was reading a lot in my book last night for my online course about how bad multi-tasking really is. Doing more than one thing at once usually means you are not doing your best at either thing. So today I go to the park with the children, and I see this: mom w/ stroller talking on cellphone. I was thinking of how many things she was doing at that one moment: exercising, spending time with her child, talking to someone, and "enjoying" nature (this was at a nice, woodsy park). Now, could she possibly have been doing any of these things well? No way. She looked to me more like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Children really complicate the whole "one thing at a time" concept. It's hard, especially with more than one child. I've been thinking about this today and trying to be fully involved in just one thing at a time. I realized that a lot of the time, I will be fully engrossed in something and a kid does something else that requires my immediate attention. I also realized that I still don't have to do more than one thing- when a child needs me, I simply STOP what I am doing and assist them with my full attention. Then I go back to the task at hand with my full attention, again.
Until I really thought about this today, I would just do 2 things at once. And you know what it did? Well, obviously, it made do neither the best I could, but it also made me aggravated, stressed, and angry. Trying to put a bandage on a boo-boo and read an email at the same time is just setting myself up for pissy. So no more. I will concentrate on this more and try to do better :)