Today we had a guest teacher. Our friend who makes the world's best ginger spice cookies came over and bustled about the kitchen with my kids. I lurked around while holding her pretty baby, but mostly wanted the kids to have the opportunity to work with and interact with an adult other than me.
It is educational to witness others working with your children. Their eyes are fresh to your kids, so they can better see -- things like what is funny and what is just a small mistake (they aren't being smothered by a pileup of that same mistake, so they can keep proper perspective and see it as an isolated incident... because most things should be allowed to be isolated incidents when it comes to kids with their barely-viable frontal lobes and phantom short-term memories...). Plus, people are their better selves around different faces, so I saw my kids in consistently-polite and cheerful mode.
Sometimes when my nerves have been twanged for a while I don't think that separating/"getting out" is necessarily the answer -- I felt more refreshed, motivated, and appreciative of my kids by being around (but not being in charge). It helped that the friend that came is kind and has an excellent sense of humor.
