Written by Heather Steiner, MN

I have four children, aged 5, 8, 9 and 10, so when I say that using Peace and Calming during the school/home transition time changed my life, I mean it.

I have always been a very orderly person. I like schedules, routines and rules. And my children understand what is expected of them.  But that after school transition time was the bane of my existence.  I wanted them to come home, put away their things, and start on their homework with minimal complaints while I washed their lunch dishes and started dinner, but that rarely happened.  Instead, they came in the door whining, threw their backpacks on the kitchen floor (where I would proceed to trip over them while making dinner) and very begrudgingly begin their homework amidst tears and cries of “why do I have to?” It was not a good start to the evening.

I tried putting Peace and Calming in the diffuser one afternoon about 15 minutes before my kids were due home and I just let it run until the homework hour was over.  I thought it was a fluke.  The kids came in and immediately asked what the smell was.  After I explained to them, and my eight-year-old stuck his face right over the diffuser and breathed a huge sigh of relief, they calmly put away their backpacks, emptied their lunch boxes and began their homework.  I continued this routine for the remainder of the school year, and the few times that I forgot to put in the Peace and Calming, things were difficult.

I’m not sure if the Peace and Calming was keeping me calm so that I could be a more effective parent or if it was keeping my children calm so that they could be good listeners.  I suspect it was a little bit of both.  Either way, I know we’ll be starting the school year with Peace and Calming in our diffuser.