I posted this blurry photo of my sleeping child on instagram the other day…
In fact when I posted the photo, all four of my children were asleep in their beds, and it was 8:50am.
As I watched my boy blissfully snoring his head off I had a twinge of panic…
I should wake him, and the rest of the kids, and start getting them all back to the routine of early mornings before school starts next week.
But it was only a momentary twinge… thankfully it passed without me actually acting on it.
You see I know there are lots and lots of reasons, really good reasons, why I should start trying to re-establish a routine before school starts, and I know I will probably regret it come this time next week, but I’m not doing it.
I’m not.
Here’s why I’m not trying to re-establish a routine before school starts.
- Our Christmas/summer holidays feel short enough as it is, I am not giving up the sublime enjoyment of lazy summer mornings a moment before I have to.
- My baby starts school next week. Yes that little sleeping cherub will be a school boy. While I am not dreading this momentous event, I am also painfully aware of savouring every moment and every snuggle I can while we can.
- I have been running on less than optimum sleep for the past… um… 12 years. I am finally starting to catch up and it would be an insult to all those parents still living in the la la land of five hours of broken sleep a night to give up the momentous occasion of four children all asleep at the same time.
- I have downloaded a stack of new podcasts, and the house is silent, it would be wrong to do anything else but listen.
- I already know how hellish it will be to drag my middle child out of bed every school morning, I’ve done it for three years already. No one is stupid enough to inflict his early morning wrath on themselves without a very good reason.
- The house is silent. Did I mention that already? But surely you know how freakishly rare and awesome that is?
- If you knew there was a famine coming would you starve your family just to they got used to it? I am not exactly sure if that is a reasonable comparison but a uni lecturer used that line once many years ago and I’ve found it a useful defence ever since.
- Getting up before my kids? I’ve thought about it, and it is not my thing.
- Even if I did wake them at 7:30 every morning this week, and put up with the complaints and tired child meltdowns for a full extra week before school starts, it won’t make any difference. The first few days of school will be hell no matter what – plus we start on a Thursday, that’s only two hell days until a weekend!
- I have kids who are not naturally early risers. I don’t know why I was gifted with this miracle but I am NOT messing with it unless I absolutely have to!
All four of my kids start school for the year next Thursday.
There will be no forced early mornings in the days leading up to that first day. Instead there will be lots of down time, lots of good healthy food, lots of outside activity, lots of time together and lots of early nights.
I’m aiming to fill their tanks as much as possible while we have time… we’ll sort out the routine later.
Do you work on restablishing a school routine before school goes back or do you plan to wing it and deal with the consequences later like me?
Excellent plan.
Thinking of you on this last day off (are they all still asleep??), and shall be thinking of you moreso tomorrow with your ‘baby’ starting school… ((HUGS))
Please let us know how it goes! Hope you have something nice planned for yourself. Take care mama-bear.
Thank you!
As a kid my mom didn’t ask us to wake up early before we HAD to, even though there was always a struggle. We prepared other ways: setting up our backpacks before the school year started so we didn’t have to think of it the first day of school, just grab and go. We would do a lunch menu and pre-make breakfast burritos or sandwiches for the mornings to take the guess-work out of it. We would pick out the clothes for school. The less we had to think about in the morning, the better. Our bodies adjusted to the early mornings and she might have drank a little more coffee then, but it all worked out. Plus over time she gave the responsibilities to us and if we didn’t get it done, it didn’t get done. It taught us the importance of self-efficacy. Then in Middle school I walked to school when she was at work so early and if I was late then I was late. It was embarrassing enough and I would hear it from the teacher. But I did go to school and I did learn from my teachers and I ended up graduating from college with no parent getting me up in the morning and if my hair was a mess, then it was a mess. Oh well. No big. I didn’t go to school because it was a fashion show (and this says a lot because I LOVE a good hair day and outfit!) I was taught consequences and was able to learn quickly because my mom allowed me to feel the pain of not doing what I needed to do. It was a great lesson and now that I’m married and realize my husband’s mom didn’t allow him the suffering of many consequences, he has to learn now and it’s a lot harder the older you get.