I think I really suck at this parenting thing

[dampscribbler]

Naptime. One would think this could be defined as "the time at which a parent puts a child in bed for approximately one hour, then gets some housework done." In our house, it's "the time at which one parent speaks calmly while one child screams in agony for approximately twenty minutes, after which the child finally acquiesces to stay in her room for a period of time between five and forty-five minutes, during which the parent restrains herself from emptying the liquor cabinet down her own gullet by reading icanhascheezburger.com, cakewrecks.blogspot.com, and other such life-enhancing resources."

Comments

Re: Okay, I promise this is my last reply to your reply

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's what I'm around for. To affirm my parenting friends. Mothering is a lonely endeavor with little feedback.

Napping is such a tricky beast. We took naps entirely away from DD1 initially, but then she would be awful in the evenings, so we started having her nap once a week and then eventually phased that out and she would nap once a month (when we were in the car on a long drive to a Sacred Harp sing).

If you have a kid who is cranky when she doesn't nap and still goes to bed fine, that says to me that naps are still a good idea. What I didn't get initially was that it didn't have to be every day.

Well, DD1 has pretty consistently gotten up between 6:30 and 7 (assuming she's adjusted to East Coast time) for years (she's six now). When she was actually going to bed at 9, she was getting up after 7:30. Now that school is going, she's moving her bedtime up (hurray!) and last night she was asleep by 8:15. The time she goes to bed doesn't really seem to affect the time she wakes up. It takes a long time for that to adjust. This is a child who has always been low on the sleep needs scale (which is in contrast to her sister who obviously got her sleeping genes from me:)).

Um, did I just talk about sleep a little much there? I am pretty out of it at the moment. I'm still waiting for dinner to hit my blood;)

As for housework, I started to care about it this year, but I do it and no one notices and then I get angry. I wish I could go back to not caring.

Re: Okay, I promise this is my last reply to your reply

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Housework is one of those evil things that people only notice when it's *not* done. I hate that.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how we got a kid who is at the low end of the sleep needs scale, as her Daddy and I both love our sleep -- I do best with 9 hours, especially if they're between 11pm and 8am. Daddy can stay up until midnight but needs to sleep until 7:30 on weekdays and 9:00 on weekends. (And you should have seen me during pregnancy -- 10 hours minimum, often 13-14. Thank God I didn't have a job then.)

Mmmm...dinner....