Saturday, July 14, 2007

Emma has had a weird schedule going on all week. She stays up late, sleeps late in the morning, and takes her nap around 5:00. The last three nights when Steve and I have gone to bed at 12:30 or so, she has stayed up to watch the Food Network (which is her new favorite pastime). She's up right now, reading books by herself in the living room, and tomorrow she'll probably sleep until noon again. I'm all for letting someone choose his or her own schedule, but I'm wondering what's going to happen when we have to actually be somewhere in the morning. I can't say I blame her, though. I would totally stay up really late and sleep late every morning if I knew Noah wasn't going to wake me up and if I didn't feel like a lazy slug for doing so.

I think I'm partly to blame for her weird schedule, due to a recent epiphany I had. For ages, I relied on Emma's nap as the only time when I could get anything done. I looked forward to it every day and was always disappointed when she woke up because my "me" time was over. I have now come to realize that I no longer care if she takes a nap or what time she goes to bed. She is self-reliant enough that I can still do a lot of what I want whenever she is awake. In fact, she often asks me if I want to sew because she wants to go down in the basement and play and she wants me to be down there with her. So, now that I am not fervently awaiting any time when she will be asleep and also because she is generally very pleasant to be around, I don't really make the effort to get her to sleep. Is that bad parenting, I wonder?

Check out these cupcakes.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

eh.. "good" parenting, what is that? You are doing what works for your thriving happy kids. When you start to need to get somewhere in the morning, you'll be able to switch her schedule - probably by just skipping that 5pm nap and she'll be in bed early, right?

I'm a newbie sewer - can you recommend any fun projects to learn on?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Amy about the scheduling. Kids are so great when it comes to adapting to new schedules.
Great cupcakes are you sure they weren't your idea? I know Emma would enjoy making those.
Emma sounds so fun to be with.
LJ

Katie said...

That is the SAME thing Bree does. In fact, its 1:30 and I just put her in bed! LOL

Anonymous said...

You and your friends are so amusing compared to average American families! Parents who put their kids to bed at 8:00 every night probably don't even imagine there are little girls happily up at midnight!
Mom