Sleep.
Beautiful glorious sleep. Today I was asked, "when does your family thrive?" The first thing that popped into my head was, "When we are all asleep." Seriously.
So I was under the impression that sleep deprevation was something only to be experienced when your children are babies. That precious year which is mostly a blur and most mothers forget how tired they become and have more babies.
I sometimes think life has it's own forshadowing moments. Places where God gives us a heads up for what's to come. As I was paying for our groceries, the clerk saw my children and exclaimed, "You must be tired! I bet you don't get any sleep!" I thought to myself they aren't babies! I have a toddler and a preschooler! At least I get my sleep at night.
That night was different. And so has been every night since. Maybe my kids caught on. Maybe they thought to themselves that Lady is right! My mom should be more tired! Let's take shifts on waking up all night. We should even involve the cat and have her meow when we are not awake....
So what do you do when a 3 year old doesn't sleep through the night? I have diligently carried him back to his bed everytime he tries to get in ours. So much so he now goes to my husband's side where the probabililty is he won't get carried back.
What do you do when your 3 year old wakes up scared, crying and asking you to cuddle? To give him one more kiss?
He has night lights. He has a huge energizer lantern which would be great for the blackest of nights. He's still scared of the dark.
Here's where I attempted parenting. Explaining to him I'm too tired to play the next day if he gets me up. Didn't work.
Then, I told him all about how God protects him and watches over him while he sleeps. This proved to be too abstract and actually I think the idea of someone watching him might have scared him.
So naturally, I thought if he wasn't going to be comforted by God, I must involve Spiderman. The minute they opened, I called as many stores as it took to find one who sold a two foot Spiderman doll.
Son in tow, we went and got Spiderman (and in a tired desparation the whole bedding set). Now Spiderman protects him.
Ok for real though, like 100% sincere, it didn't work night one. I was so mad. I know who can be mad at a sweet scared three year old preschooler. But this whole parenting thing really pushes my limits.
But it did work the next night. I think him being completely worn out by preschool and a sports program might have had something to do with it but hey Mr. Spiderman thank you, keep it up you might get MVP in my house.
And thank you God for really watching over him.
But in the end this is what I learned. Being a parent is a 24 hour job. Even with big kids. There will still be more sleepless nights to come. No matter what we buy or trick we try. That's just how it is. Because they are our children and we are the parents helping them grow. And when they are teenagers we are either going to be desperately trying to wake them up or voluntarily waiting up for them as they push curfews...
Beautiful glorious sleep. Today I was asked, "when does your family thrive?" The first thing that popped into my head was, "When we are all asleep." Seriously.
So I was under the impression that sleep deprevation was something only to be experienced when your children are babies. That precious year which is mostly a blur and most mothers forget how tired they become and have more babies.
I sometimes think life has it's own forshadowing moments. Places where God gives us a heads up for what's to come. As I was paying for our groceries, the clerk saw my children and exclaimed, "You must be tired! I bet you don't get any sleep!" I thought to myself they aren't babies! I have a toddler and a preschooler! At least I get my sleep at night.
That night was different. And so has been every night since. Maybe my kids caught on. Maybe they thought to themselves that Lady is right! My mom should be more tired! Let's take shifts on waking up all night. We should even involve the cat and have her meow when we are not awake....
So what do you do when a 3 year old doesn't sleep through the night? I have diligently carried him back to his bed everytime he tries to get in ours. So much so he now goes to my husband's side where the probabililty is he won't get carried back.
What do you do when your 3 year old wakes up scared, crying and asking you to cuddle? To give him one more kiss?
He has night lights. He has a huge energizer lantern which would be great for the blackest of nights. He's still scared of the dark.
Here's where I attempted parenting. Explaining to him I'm too tired to play the next day if he gets me up. Didn't work.
Then, I told him all about how God protects him and watches over him while he sleeps. This proved to be too abstract and actually I think the idea of someone watching him might have scared him.
So naturally, I thought if he wasn't going to be comforted by God, I must involve Spiderman. The minute they opened, I called as many stores as it took to find one who sold a two foot Spiderman doll.
Son in tow, we went and got Spiderman (and in a tired desparation the whole bedding set). Now Spiderman protects him.
Ok for real though, like 100% sincere, it didn't work night one. I was so mad. I know who can be mad at a sweet scared three year old preschooler. But this whole parenting thing really pushes my limits.
But it did work the next night. I think him being completely worn out by preschool and a sports program might have had something to do with it but hey Mr. Spiderman thank you, keep it up you might get MVP in my house.
And thank you God for really watching over him.
But in the end this is what I learned. Being a parent is a 24 hour job. Even with big kids. There will still be more sleepless nights to come. No matter what we buy or trick we try. That's just how it is. Because they are our children and we are the parents helping them grow. And when they are teenagers we are either going to be desperately trying to wake them up or voluntarily waiting up for them as they push curfews...
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