Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Rest Time

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Why I didn't give my kids a rest time months ago I can't figure out. Jack had stopped taking naps a long time ago, and it was always a fight with Stella, so I guess I just gave up the whole nap idea. It meant an earlier easy bedtime anyway, come 8 o'clock they went down pretty quickly, and that made a little afternoon fussyness worthwhile to me. But then this last month, our afternoons were filled with pretty much constant whining, and lots of crying, and lots of frustration. I felt like I was doing something wrong everyday. John would come home and I'd tell him I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but something is not right.
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We thought, ok maybe their just tired, duh!!, pretty basic parenting stuff I know, but hey, you try having 3 kids 3 and under and see if your common sense parenting is top notch. So here we go, "rest time", started last Thursay, is going awesome. Jack draws, reads, and quietly plays with cars. Stella, reads and falls asleep. After an hour I get Stella up, and let Jack out. There has been hardly any protest, and Stella even has said "I'm tired" when I tell her it's rest time. Me? I rest to0, oh it's so tempting to do those dishes but I don't. I make myself rest. Luckly so far Rocky has slept through these times to, so it really is such a peacful, quiet, restful time.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heather, so so happy this is working out for you!!! When you first mentioned it I though I will definitely try this. Probably calling it a rest time and not a nap makes for less protest. Can't wait to see if it works with my 4 year old Julian. And my little 2 year old Camille will benefit as well from the whole house going quiet. We've tried to have her nap in a house filled with the overtired and "crazed" Julian running amuck, that doesn't work so well.

Happy resting!

Lorissa said...

Yay! I'm glad it's still working. My mom made me do this too when I was little long after I outgrew naps.

Anonymous said...

yayayay!!!

Sean and Will are 5 now and they still take a nap every day.

Anonymous said...

Good for you!

It sounds (and looks) like a lovely time. I bet the kids look forward to it!!

Hugs.

Jodi said...

As a single working mom, I was rarely home to enforce a rest time for my daughter by my mother talks about how rest times saved her until my sister and I were both in school. It's about the little things.

gkgirl said...

yay!
i'm so happy to hear
this is working for you
and that you are resting
in that time too...
it is amazingly restorative
and just knowing that you
have that to look forward to
can make the mornings so much
easier when they feel hard...
:)

Renee said...

That's so great. I love to have 'rest time' myself. My older ones, of course, don't rest but they're old enough to do their own thing so it still works out.

Anonymous said...

Just popped in to see your banner picture today. I still love to see Rocky crooning away.

Hugs to you.

R/

Anonymous said...

The photos are terrific and I'm glad rest time is working so well for you!