Comments on Extraordinary Mothers: Extraordinary Tuesday: Two For Tuesday

I stick to a very tight schedule with my kids duri...

2009-12-09T10:09:44.555-08:00

I stick to a very tight schedule with my kids during the week since I am the only one home with them. Weekends are bad though. We do all our running (errands and shopping) on the weekends and all schedules are out. The only day I have some kind of schedule is Sunday and that is because of church.

Weekends are my worst. We don't travel or anything so that is all I have to contend with... oh, and a husband who has no idea what a schedule is. grrr

I think we're still laying the ground works fo...

2009-12-08T07:38:04.378-08:00

I think we're still laying the ground works for a schedule. I've been pretty diligent with her bedtime, even when he's working late she still goes to bed at the same time.

Our eating schedule is pretty set as well. But when I was primarily breastfeeding I fed her on demand and let her create that schedule. Co-sleeping helped immensely too. I told the mister either he gets up and brings her to me, or she sleeps in our room. That ended that debate pretty quick. ;)

Even at a young age, I can tell she likes structure. Nap time will make or break the deal. Some days for whatever reason she just will not go down. And she turns into a subtle miserable grump until bedtime.

Up until recently her naps have always been taken at home, or in the car when if we needed to be some place. I'm starting to want to go back to that now, after seeing how her being at my MIL's with no nap effects the rest of her day. Each time I have to specify "She needs a nap around 1pm" with emphasis on NEEDS...has happened once out of the last 10 times. Ugh!

My girls (ages 10 and 4) thrive on routine and sch...

2009-12-08T06:51:18.773-08:00

My girls (ages 10 and 4) thrive on routine and schedules. We have the same bedtime every night for the girls and have for years. On the weekends they aren't allowed to stay up but just 30 minutes later than normal, some fuss is always happening with the older one, but I also know that wake ups are a lot happier with the routine bed time. Kids need a certain amount of sleep every night and if they don't get it you can tell. They are just cranky and fussy and not only are they miserable it makes the whole family miserable.

When we have company over we still have the scheduled bed times. However when traveling it's harder to maintain. The first couple of nights the girls are allowed to stay up an hour or even two later. The remainder of the nights we are at our destination, normal bedtime is in play. The kids find this not fair, etc but they function so much better and have a lot more fun when they aren't miserable from lack of sleep.

When my kids were still napping, we were always home for nap time. This was hard to go and do things but I think that my kids were far more behaved than others that napped on the go.