I think I broke my head....

[DrFaroohk]

Oh god the little offspring have been driving me nuts. At 3 and 7 they are in constant competition to see who can be the most annoying.

And it's been an extremely busy couple of weeks for us, so basically, between in-laws breaking up, moving, keeping the peace, repairs, work, everything....I've had the kids all to myself for the past 900 hours....

And even worse, with our shitty new internet I can't play any of my unwinding games, so I'm even more at super-critical-mass. I think...I'm going to explode.

But in the middle of an abbot and costello style conversation with my kid last night, I honestly felt something in my head just snap...like a rubber band pulled too tight. And now...I just want to free the beast.

And it's days like this people will avoid me so I have no one to free the beast on.

[SkullKing]

I don´t know if you have the time for it.

but some physical activity might do wonders for you.

Also,you could download some free games, so you don´t get so dependent on internet.

[Andara Bledin]

The nice thing about Steam is that most of their games are local. It's just the downloading that takes time.

^-.-^

[SkullKing]

True, but their offline mode is sub-optimal

The ease that is to find out which friends are online and playing what helps is very handy

[DrFaroohk]

Well it's not so much the games...I can play any game and get by really. I just can't stand being bothered so much. Even after I'm practically crying and telling my wife that I'm overloaded from people constantly being at me and need a break and she's like "Ok ok have a break" and then like 5 minutes later "Honey can you get this for me? Can you go do this? Can you take care of that?"

[Andara Bledin]

Get an alarm clock. When you take a break, or she tells you to take a break, set the alarm clock for some time an hour or two later, whatever you've agreed is good. Then, if she comes back before then, just point out that you're still on You time and unless someone is bleeding or the house is burning, whatever can wait. Put a notepad next to the clock for writing out requests that don't involve blood or fire.

^-.-^

[DrFaroohk]

I should do that, Andara. It's a good plan.

One problem I have though is like...say I need a 1 hour break. 36 minutes into it you come bugging me because you want my opinion on which shirt looks better - the blue one, or the blue one.

Well guess what, see that 36 minutes? GONE. Starting over. Let's try again.

But many people are not conducive with this attitude.

[Andara Bledin]

Then start the clock over. And keep starting the clock over until everybody knows that your you time is yours and you need to be able to have it, uninterrupted.

In this always-connected world, I think a lot of people are starting to realize that there are some times they just need to unplug, lock themselves away, and get some time to themselves.

^-.-^

[SkullKing]

^^This.

People need to understand that some times you need time for yourself, I know this is more difficult once you have small children, however, if you SO agreed to it, she must respect it.

And interupting it for a trivial reason is disrespectufull(even if she doesn´t realize it.)

Do you have an study or office where you can lock the door and say "If the door is loked I am busy, don´t bother me'?

In my experience that kind of fisical burier(even if the door is unlocked, just closed) Helps a lot

[anakhouri]

I don't know so much about the spouse bothering you (my husband is pretty good about giving me a little downtime, but sometimes it seems like every three minutes he wants me to look at some video on his computer, a black metal music video or some guy playing bass or a game trailer- none of which I care about in the least). But I have the toddler all by myself 12-13 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's exhausting trying to keep up with him, and even if he's not in motion his thought processes are so chaotic it wears me out trying to even follow them.

[kiwi]

Can you physically leave the house for a break, even if you just go sit in the car, put the seat back and chill?

[BookstoreEscapee]

Then start the clock over. And keep starting the clock over until everybody knows that your you time is yours and you need to be able to have it, uninterrupted.

Like Supernanny - when they put the kid in time out, it's for however many minutes (equal to the kid's age, I think she does, so for a 5 year old it'd be 5 minutes) and every time the kid leaves the time out space, the clock is restarted until they do their full time in one stretch. An adult should be able to grasp that quicker than a 5 year old (I would hope).