two things that drive me mad:
1. an exhausted child resisting sleep
2. a child resisting getting dressed
sleep and getting dressed are pretty major parts of our lives so i'm working on chilling out and not letting it get to me so much. an internal mother rage can boil at these things but i'm trying to breathe deep and let go...
after seeing daddy off to work this morning, little mr z told me :
'i told daddy two things - could he get back as quickly as he can so he can say goodnight to me specially, and mummy is going to read my story tonight.' - the importance of the bedtime ritual - he's planning it out already and it's 8am.
sweet! love that he's so organized.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting, the craving for routine. I'll pass on a tip from another mother. She told me to capitalize on that need by drawing out a "plan" for bedtime that they have to follow "all on their own". You make the order of the plan with the child and they can draw a picture for each point.
ReplyDeleteOurs goes like this:
1 - undressed
2 - pee
3 - pjs on with pull-up
4 - brush teeth
5 - choose books
Mr. R has it down now and as supper ends I'll say "Surprise me and get ready all by your self". He loves it. Hope this helps.
yes, that bedtime routine is I think my happiest memory of child rearing. In the end, after #6, I didn't even like going out at nights as I'd miss it.
ReplyDeleteChildren resisting parents are v annoying, but strangely, after Stephen died, what I missed was the regular fights to change his nappy, dress him, get him to leave when he didn't want to, etc. The resistance seemed to encapsulate his little individual spirit.
LOVE your blog!!!
What I find curious is the way i'm STILL so damned resistant to settling down and going to sleep some nights. I've made heaps of progress on my resistance to getting dressed, though.
ReplyDeletexx seren