Scheduled days of day care, work are break for overwhelmed mom
BY ALTHEA PETERSON World Staff Writer
Monday, December 24, 2012
12/24/12 at 5:55 AM
Because I Said So is a blog written by six parents and one grandparent.
Related Stories:
No, Virginia, there is no …
Remember true meaning of Christmas
Sleeping in on Saturdays didn't used to have guilt attached to it.
Doing housework on weekends was less of a chore when it wasn't as necessary to finish it immediately.
Why am I looking forward to structured, workday Monday?
Like the parents who know what they're doing (i.e. the ones with older kids), I will be experiencing the joys of holiday breaks from school, as well, where day care is closed for two weeks, stretched from the week of Christmas to the week of New Year's Day.
I used to love snow days, sick days, weekends and holidays as a kid. Breaks from school were fun, with no schedules and more relaxed bedtimes/wake-up calls.
As a parent, I love spending time with my daughter, but I hesitantly admit that the weekdays are much easier for someone who feels as lost and overwhelmed at times with how to handle an entirely dependent baby.
There are benefits and curses of not having a schedule.
During maternity leave, there were no designated feeding times, no designated nap times, and, unfortunately, no designated bedtimes.
The lack of structure allowed for some flexibility but ultimately led to an exhausted mommy by day's end (and not just because babies sleep in three-hour spurts).
After introducing our daughter to day care, we follow the same schedule (if we can help it) that she doesn't during the week on off-days, from feeding to napping.
There might be some changes (baby refusing to sleep), but for the most part, structure and schedule make the weekends and holidays a lot less stressful and a lot more fun.
Curing kiddo boredom
Some day (hopefully not), our daughter may survive for several hours parked in front of the TV. Or (more hopefully), playing outside unsupervised.
Unfortunately, our baby is bored fast when she is given restrictions on what she can do.
As such, we often end up letting her crawl freely around the entire house, taking away things she can't chew up (electric cords are her favorite), toys she can't play with (mostly that belong to the dogs) or picking up after her little path of destruction (why does she love chewing on the green plastic Xbox cases?)
At least since she's crawling, it's easy to keep up with her.
Grandparents to the rescue
The ultimate way to survive the holidays is to enlist REAL adult supervision in the form of family and friends, especially the kid's grandparents (in other words, our parents).
How do you survive the non-school, non-daycare days?
Althea Peterson 918-581-8361
althea.peterson@tulsaworld.com
