Nine pages into "You're Not the Boss of Me, Brat-Proofing Your 4 to 12-year-old Child" by Betsy Brown Braun and I am too traumatized to continue reading.
Evidently everything my children are doing that makes me crazy is the result of them taking on my bad habits. The book opens with a clear explanation of the "do what I say not what I do" contradiction. Apparently my kids are hearing my actions loud & clear and not listening to what I tell them.
Hopefully it just seems worse because there are more of them than me....
Promise to keep reading.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Zombie Mommy - we all need sleep!
Sleep, I need it, I want it and I can never in my life remember thinking about it as much as I do as a parent! Before I had kids, in college and even in high-school I was always up early, a rise and shine type of person who never worried about sleep. But now....I can't stop thinking about it.
Parents obsess about sleep; we endlessly talk about sleep and compare our tails of bedtime horrors and sleep deprivation.
There are so many BOOKS about children and sleep: Ferber, Babywise, Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, etc. the list and the varying techniques are mind-scrambling. Chances are in a group of 10 parents you are going to find 7 different sleep methods and every parent will swear what they do works yet contribute their own bedtime-horror stories to the conversation.
All this sleep talk was to be expected when my kids were babies but now that they are not....
In my house we follow the "sleep begets sleep" philosophy. I put my kids to bed as early as possible every night. Trust me I have tried pushing bedtime later with the hopes they will sleep later in the morning....NOPE. Never works. My kids don't sleep in. As mentioned earlier I wasn't a sleep-in person either but I would LIKE the option to now that it is no longer an option.
Do my kids sleep through the night? Depends. Do they go to bed easily? 2 out of 3 do. Do they sleep past 6 on the weekend? NEVER.
So, I began to wonder should I be encouraging sleep so much? Is 6:45 too early for a Kindergartner? Is my kids early bedtime a sign of selfishness because I was trying to get to "adult time" as quickly as possible? I see other kids out or up later and question if I am depriving my kids of something. By the reaction of other parents (with the exception of a few) I began to wonder if I was putting them to bed too early.
Our schedule is normal – my kids seem tired at the end of the day, they don't nap and we are out the door to school by 7:20 every morning….but they are getting older, maybe they don’t need to sleep as much as they did?
Then I read Chapter 2 "The Lost Hour" in NurtureShock by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman. This chapter shed so much light on sleep and how children's sleep becomes essential to their success in so many aspects of life. The topic covered in the chapter (and researched endlessly by so many) is that children's lost sleep effects: focus, obesity, emotional stability, success in school and sports, and cognitive development.
So now armed with support by "the parenting book" regardless if you are an over-tired 3, 5 or 38 year-old I am sending all grouchy, whinny people straight to bed to re-capture that lost hour and so everyone can grow and develop better tomorrow and Mommy can start her grown-up time a little earlier tonight!
Let me know what works in your house. What are your bedtime thoughts and practices?
Parents obsess about sleep; we endlessly talk about sleep and compare our tails of bedtime horrors and sleep deprivation.
There are so many BOOKS about children and sleep: Ferber, Babywise, Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, etc. the list and the varying techniques are mind-scrambling. Chances are in a group of 10 parents you are going to find 7 different sleep methods and every parent will swear what they do works yet contribute their own bedtime-horror stories to the conversation.
All this sleep talk was to be expected when my kids were babies but now that they are not....
In my house we follow the "sleep begets sleep" philosophy. I put my kids to bed as early as possible every night. Trust me I have tried pushing bedtime later with the hopes they will sleep later in the morning....NOPE. Never works. My kids don't sleep in. As mentioned earlier I wasn't a sleep-in person either but I would LIKE the option to now that it is no longer an option.
Do my kids sleep through the night? Depends. Do they go to bed easily? 2 out of 3 do. Do they sleep past 6 on the weekend? NEVER.
So, I began to wonder should I be encouraging sleep so much? Is 6:45 too early for a Kindergartner? Is my kids early bedtime a sign of selfishness because I was trying to get to "adult time" as quickly as possible? I see other kids out or up later and question if I am depriving my kids of something. By the reaction of other parents (with the exception of a few) I began to wonder if I was putting them to bed too early.
Our schedule is normal – my kids seem tired at the end of the day, they don't nap and we are out the door to school by 7:20 every morning….but they are getting older, maybe they don’t need to sleep as much as they did?
Then I read Chapter 2 "The Lost Hour" in NurtureShock by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman. This chapter shed so much light on sleep and how children's sleep becomes essential to their success in so many aspects of life. The topic covered in the chapter (and researched endlessly by so many) is that children's lost sleep effects: focus, obesity, emotional stability, success in school and sports, and cognitive development.
So now armed with support by "the parenting book" regardless if you are an over-tired 3, 5 or 38 year-old I am sending all grouchy, whinny people straight to bed to re-capture that lost hour and so everyone can grow and develop better tomorrow and Mommy can start her grown-up time a little earlier tonight!
Let me know what works in your house. What are your bedtime thoughts and practices?
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