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Thursday, July 28, 2011

I put my kids on a schedule. You can hate me now. (but read the rest of this so you know what you're talking about when you do)

Yup. You heard me. I live by a schedule*. And so do my kids. No I don't consult my day planner to see if we can have lunch now or if we need to wait another 20 minutes. I don't freak out if we don't quite manage our planned 7:30 bedtime (The kid's, not mine). I do know that 7:30 is what I'm shooting for. And I know that I'll likely be eating lunch everyday at 11:30 so I can put the Seniorita in bed at Noon.  Why? because that's when we are hungry, that's when she's tired. If I ignore that then I just have a little grumpster on my hands.

Let me let you in on a little secret. Our bodies run on a schedule. Whether we like it or not. If I eat at 7 in the morning. I know I'll want a snack at 9 (don't judge me, I'm nursing.) I know that if I want to be well rested a good mom then I need to go to bed early enough. I know that if I want any kind of time to myself in a day I need to manage my kids time so they're naps overlap a bit. And if I want to spend anytime alone with the Dreamboat than I need the kids to be in bed at a reasonable hour.

I also know that I need those things. Just like my body needs sleep and food, and needs them regularly, I have mental, emotional and spiritual needs. I'm gonna throw intellectual needs in there too. I kind of think that a lot of the moms out there that cringe at the word schedule are giving there all to their kids, but they aren't keeping any for themselves. Or their spouses. And if they are it's somehow part of their 'routine' (ahem...schedule).

Well, I hate to break it to you all, but I'm pretty sure they are the same thing. As a stay at home mom (does anyone else thing abbreviating that looks weird....SAHM...blech) any schedule isn't going to be rigorous. Any routine is still going to be pretty structured by virtue of the fact that we need structure. Our bodies need structure so we can keep our blood sugar up and our eyes open. So, whether we call it a routine or a schedule we are still giving our kids regular naps or else they are royal grumpkins and I don't know about you, but I don't like dealing with a bunch of whiners when the problem is easily solved by just putting them in bed when they need it....at the same time...everyday....because that's what they're cute little bodies need.





*The vast majority of people grow up to live in a scheduled world. They will go to school and work and live by the clock. And there's nothing wrong with that. Why do we have such a stigma against schedules? Seriously, I don't know. Do you?

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