Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Sleepytime

Old Wahoo loves sleep, especially now that the three boys make a nap an almost daily necessity for the old man. But with school getting ready to start here in the Great Lakes State, the time has come to rearrange the boys' sleep patterns. If we learned one thing, a tired kid is a cranky kid. Thus, sleep is our friend.
The Motherlode blog at The New York Times had a nice article with tips on getting your kids on a sleep schedule for school. But as the author Lisa Belkin says, even following good advice does not always lead to the intended result. The best laid plans of mice and men ... 
Sleep schedules are a much bigger hassle for Mrs. Wahoo since my work schedule takes me out of the rotation for at least three school nights a week. Getting the kids to sleep is tough even when it's two parents against three boys, but one parent vs. three boys ... even Norman Dale couldn't lead the Hickory Huskers against those kind of odds. And since I get home late, I'm usually cranky or worthless in the morning, so Mrs. Wahoo has that going against her, too.
Anyway, I was just wondering what worked for everyone else, or if you all had similar worries about sleep schedules. If you'd like, leave a comment below, or give me an e-mail at john.hetzler@gmail.com.

EDITED: To fix e-mail address.

2 comments:

  1. The Clexton household has started the same Back to School transition. This week the goal has been to have them in their beds at 9pm. If they do that successfully, with teeth brushed, clothes picked up, etc - we let them read for an hour and lights out doesn't happen until 10. Next week we'll go for lights out at 9:30.

    My biggest problem is that I'm not there in the morning to get them out of bed earlier. It sort of defeats the process if they are still sleeping in until 10am, 11am, etc.

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