Having young children is a great time to reevaluate your family routines. What’s good for your children is often what’s good for you too. I cannot say enough about the importance of sleep for everyone in the family and yet it is so often the one thing we just don’t seem to have time for as parents and we often give poor sleeping habits to our children. Instead let’s give them the life gift of good healthy sleep!
Children learn the most from their parents so just remember they are noticing how you live. You are their role model. Of course there are days you have to keep going, you are the adult in the house. Still, it’s important to find a way to get quality sleep as much as possible so you can be the rational, kind, and focused adult in the house.
For children an evening routine is one of the most important elements of good sleep plan. Do not put your child in charge of his or her own bedtime. I’m pretty flexible when I talk about these things, but I have seen this lead to real problems for the whole family and sometimes a lifetime of sleep issues for a child. Here’s why. First of all it’s very stressful to not know when your bedtime is and to not feel like your parents are in control or a basic family need. It’s just too much to ask of a 4 year old. Sure everyone wants to stay up, but once you’re overtired it’s hard to sleep and that sets you up for a terrible morning.
More than once I have seen children who are actually great about setting their own bedtime and then all of a sudden (when they are older and in school) they decide to stay up really late and because they have never had someone set a bedtime for them, they are extremely resistant to the idea. It can become a real battle of wills and the start of a very unhealthy habit. Poor sleep can lead to all kinds of health issues including obesity, dietary problems, and of course poor performance in school.
If you're looking for some information on setting up evening routines checkout our previous post at https://ivyartz.com/blog/blogpost.php?permalink=positive-bedtime-routines-