Early Bedtimes For The Win

All households, children and parents are different but in mine, I encourage and work hard towards "early" bed times. I've had this discussion often because most parents I know don't necessarily have many rules about bed time. My definition of early is between 7:30PM and 8:30PM. Late would be anything after that.

Here's the thing, I'm up early always since I had a baby. Sleeping in is 7ish regularly and on some freak occurrence maybe even 8ish. My daughter does not sleep in. She seriously has to be up until 10PM or so with high levels of activity to make it to 7AM. Normally, she is up at 6:30 regularly or even 6 sometimes. 

I love to go to bed early too! I love being asleep no later than 9PM because I'm up at 5 to work out and then I get my 8 hours of rest. I'm very much that person that needs 8 hours of rest and I don't even feel badly about that. 

My kid can fall asleep in a good 10 minutes and early bed times leave room for her to have a better tomorrow. When we all stay up too late, the recovery the next day is rough because we don't sleep in and rarely have the opportunity to nap. I will always champion early bed time.

I think I have one other mom friend who is completely with me on this and it works well in her household also. We both notice pretty intense behavioral shifts when our kiddos aren't rested well enough. 

I don't judge anyone for letting their kids stay up, if you all have the energy to deal with that, power to you, but I guard our routines pretty closely. It took me a long time to realize how much sleep I just need to be a nicer person and the recovery the next day is often not worth the late stuff. There are exceptions, of course, but mostly I'm that "early to bed, early to rise," nerd.

My husband gives me a hard time because I literally attempt to sleep hoard at all times. I feel like if I collect enough sleep, you know like a squirrel collects acorns, I can make it through the sleepless times better. He always laughs, "I'm pretty sure that's not how it works."

I gave being up late and irresponsible the good college try a few years ago. Not for me, no thanks. 

Lately I've just embraced, or tried to, almost everything that comes along with all this aging stuff. It doesn't bother me. I need plenty of rest, lots of water and to make sure I get some good proteins. The rest is just taking it one day at a time.

The thing I love about the early bed time stuff, is it allows me to go to bed when I need to, instead of trying to get more things done while the kiddo is still up or having to stay up way past them. My daughter throws a fit about how it's unfair that I get to stay up when 90% of the time I'm right behind her for bed time. She then gets pissy when my lamp goes off and I give up and give in to sleep also. It's kind of hilarious. 

My husband used to get annoyed that I went to bed so early and wouldn't stay up late with him for no reason. In turn I got annoyed that he wouldn't go to bed early so we kind of had to find our happy medium. It's a fact guys don't need as much sleep as we do anyway. Throw in the mom factor and no contest, we need all the sleep!

That whole "You can sleep when you're dead thing?" I get it, but sleep is my favorite hobby and I make no apologies anymore. I am every cliche meme about sleep and I own it because between motherhood and the thyroid drama, I am a much much nicer, better, awake, alert and helpful person when you just let me get my rest. Ask my husband!

I admire the moms that stay up late and kick butt the next day. I admire the moms who can still be sweet and patient with their kids up until double digit night times. I admire anyone who is a night owl because I tried and failed at every kind of attempt. What works for your family is awesome, keep it up! I however, always encourage and advocate early bed time stuff because it has worked super well for our household.

Don't get me wrong, my husband lets bed time fly. It's like a fluid concept in his world, but he is only home for bed time two nights a week if even that so this mother hen makes sure the baby chick is in bed so when that rooster crows the next morning, everyone can function! Fourth of July will of course be an exception to the rule as most holidays are but boy is Christmas Eve the absolute most important bed time strictness rule ever. That kid gets up earlier and we have to stay up later with the elves to get it all taken care of. 

So hopefully everyone has restful times and routines and I love to hear about any and all! Happy Tuesday!

What A Day Of Rest Can Do

Yesterday my poor daughter was sick. No crazy flu, no high fever, just a run of the mill cold. I was honestly surprised no one called me Monday because she was definitely on the decline and Monday night she slept horrible. Wait, let me correct, WE slept horribly.

After 9 days in a row of kicking restaurant rear, yesterday my husband was off. So, they had a lazy morning. However, we had a new washer to procure mid-day so I had to do the afternoon shift of sickie care. I am blessed enough to have amazing bosses who never shame me for my mother status and totally understand sick days, so leaving halfway through my day was not an issue, even a little bit.

My daughter demanded she have sausage so I stopped at the store and then went home to release my husband to get our new fancy washing machine. While he was gone my daughter took like a 3 hour nap. She doesn't nap anymore, especially voluntarily. That's how I knew she was off.

She didn't perk up until almost 7PM and then started showing signs of life and normalcy but I'm telling you, it's kind of impressive what a day of rest can do.

Rest is such a foreign concept to me, which is probably why once every 3 to 5 years I get taken down with some foreign super flu, feeling like I took my healthy life for granted and writing drug-induced living wills on paper towels as my body works against me. Kid are often under-estimated in terms of how much rest they really need.

I don't think it's any surprise that well rested children would listen, learn and play better than those lacking in those areas but I've never felt any shame about bed time, or letting my kid watch TV in her down time. Every parent has the panic of the negative affects of screen time. I get it. However, we live in a world increasingly dependent on those technologies, as a parent it's just our job to control how much and what kind. And every single person will be different.

I've advertised often that we watch subtitles with everything now. Guess what? It has helped our daughter learn to read! Just the other day she noticed the difference in the spelling of flour and flower in a show she was watching. Some kids don't relate as well.

For me, TV time is a restful thing. I love tuning into a good series or old series, even in the background as comic relief. My daughter is much the same. Also, kids are so insanely busy now. We have two back to back birthday parties this weekend and this is after horseback riding lessons!

I don't remember being busy, except maybe for a sports season. I also don't remember not making it to bed at reasonable times. I don't remember play dates being scheduled either. I do remember having to figure out my own entertainment, and it wasn't just the television or video games.

Now that weekends are just as packed as weekdays when do we rest? You're supposed to on the 7th day, but then again, we have to get up and go to church more often than not. Usually by Sunday at 5PM I prefer to be in my pajamas and done peopling and I want us chilling in comfy spaces and eating popcorn. I feel like this is tantamount to readying us for the week.

Yesterday my daughter asked me to play with her, and I said, "I can get some toys out but you really need your rest to go back to school tomorrow." I knew she was sick because she didn't argue and was content binge-watching the likes of Barbie, Pixar movies, and Doc McStuffins. Even after her long nap she slept like a champ and woke up sassy and ready to go.

In the time that I had off with her yesterday I finally cleared our dining room table which is forever a "throw stuff" and creative art space. I filed a bunch of things that had piled up on the file bin to be dealt with. I ran the dishwasher and started the Robovac, I cleaned up a few other areas as well. Not restful, sure, but productive. I was also able to sneak into the gym for the workout I had missed that morning.

It was a good reboot from her being sick, for the whole house. My husband was able to sleep in and decompress from work stuff. The dog was happy to have his humans around instead of being alone in the house. It's kind of cool what a day of rest can do.

We forget to rest too much. We put our bodies and our minds through the ringer too often, but after you get that elusive rest it's kind of nice to look back and think, "wow that was completely worth it."

I don't know why I don't allow myself that more, as I always make room for it, if not force, my child to. Hubby knows his limits better, I guess, and will rest when he's at his max for sure. I kind of assume the dog does all the resting for me, but perhaps it's time to take his cue and better explore more of exactly what a day of rest can do. Maybe Sunday!