Can't get her kids to sleep, she needs help!
[ Received an interesting and distressingly common complaint from a reader about being unable to get her young children to sleep at a rational hour and, with her permission, I am posting our back-and-forth here. If you have any additional comments or ideas, please do leave them and help this poor couple out with their perpetually awake little ones! --DT ]
Hi Dave, You have info in your attachment parenting blog about sleep patterns and getting the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. I just read one post about your little guy refusing to go to bed at 10 PM. We are lucky to get our kids down before midnight. It's often times 1, 2 AM.
That’s brutal. What time do they get up? Do you have pretty quiet dinners and evenings, or are you all pretty wired and moving around? We try, as best we can, to have less than full brightness lights, talk quietly and only allow “mellow� play so we can get things to slooowwww down. Recently we’ve been trying to have 7pm bedtimes and it’s working pretty well, the kids are almost always asleep by 7.45 or so. Thankfully, we haven't had a 10pm night in long time. The 2yo’s different because she’s either fully ON or OFF, no slowing down with her. But that’s just her age...
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Children maturing too fast? Control their media exposure
An interesting article on the Associated Press wire this morning about how children are growing up too fast: 10 is the New 15 as Kids Grow Up Faster. The quote that most jumped out at me is:
"Some of them are going on "dates" and talking on their own cell phones. They listen to sexually charged pop music, play mature-rated video games and spend time gossiping on MySpace. And more girls are wearing makeup and clothing that some consider beyond their years."
What I don't understand is where the parents are in this situation.
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Can breastfeeding and formula-feeding moms remain friends?
The following is a contributed article...
Since my friends and I have become parents, I've noticed significant differences in the ways we have chosen to raise our children. In the early months of my pregnancy, I didn't it would have much of an impact on us because we had all been friends for many years. However, I soon realized that being the first breast feeder (amongst other parenting firsts) would introduce some new qualms within my group of friends.
The biggest challenge for me has been to find a way to explain why I chose to breastfeed, co-sleep with, etc. my daughter without my friends feeling as if I am implying that I'm a better mother or criticizing their parenting choices. Throughout my first year of motherhood, I found myself in this situation quite often.
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