Rules and structure are what keep us afloat- especially in
my house. We have daily schedules with
pictures that make them easy and fun for the kids to follow. We have a meal-planning schedule that makes
it easy to know what to cook each night and what to buy at the grocery
store. The kids don’t complain about
what’s for dinner, because it’s on the schedule. In fact they are excited to check the
schedule and know what to expect for dinner each night.
My most fundamental parenting rule has always been to do
what ever is best for me and my child at any particular point in time.
Sometimes, I am so rooted in rules and structure that I
forget my most fundamental rule.
Judah, age 15 months, still nurses anywhere from 2-4 times a
day. It was my plan to wean him by the
time Shimmy and I leave for our long-awaited trip to Hawaii in March. By that time Judah will be close to 17
months. That seemed like a reasonable
time to stop nursing. I had a mental
schedule of when to start cutting out nursing sessions. But now that it’s time to start, I don’t want
to. And I doubt Jude wants to. I think about it, struggle with it, every
time I nurse him. So I’ve decided to nix
my schedule. I’m going to let things
happen organically and hope for the best.
I can reassess when the trip gets closer. And when I get back from the trip, if I want
to try to pick up nursing where I left off, and Jude does too, we can nurse
indefinitely.
Lilah, age almost 4, has been having some sleeping
issues. For weeks, she wakes in the
middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep. Which means, neither can I. For the first week or so I did everything by
the books. I walked her back to her
room; I reassured her; I made a chart for incentive to stay in her bed all
night. It wasn’t working. Then I decided to break the rules. I let her sleep with me two nights in a row
when she woke up. The next night we both
slept in her bed when she woke up. A small part of me was worried about
establishing bad habits and patterns, but a larger part of me just wanted to
sleep. It felt like the right decision. This morning she woke only minutes before our
established wake up time. She finally
got to put the first sticker on her chart!
For Sophie’s birthday this year we forwent the usual large
birthday party. We had a smaller party
with just family. I brought cupcakes to
her classroom on her birthday. The next
day we broke the rules and let her skip school.
We got our nails done, went out to lunch, and went shopping at the
mall. It was fantastic to break with
convention and avoid the big party.
Rules are great, and most of the time, very necessary. But rules can be broken, and sometimes that
is very necessary too.
