What time is it? Some times are more important than others. You have taught your children this. You have! You have taught them that certain times mean a meal is going to start. A certain time is for curfew and another for sleeping. Christmas Day and Easter have events that have particular meaning. What time do you open presents? What time is Easter egg hunting? My children have learned, that sometimes, when I ask them if they know what time it is, I may just be asking if they are aware of what is coming next. "No it's not 10 am, it's time to clean your room."
Do you know what time it is? This answer isn't on the clock. You might recognize it from the calender. I will give you another clue. In Marshalltown, last weekend was the tax free holiday. The tax free holiday is a lawmaker gift to parents, to do back to school shopping. That means a lot of things. It means it is time to start getting the kids back to bed at a reasonable hour. It takes about a week to reset your sleep cycle. So look on your calender and find the first day of school. You need to start resetting bedtimes a week before school starts. So if you are the type to give in to your kids " but it's our last day of summer" complaints, then you need to set their expectations so you aren't fighting it the weekend before school starts. Just like Sunday Night is a school night, the week before school needs to be about preparation not vacation. So get out the calender, schedule some fun for the rest of the summer and prepare your kids for the day they have to start going to bed early.
Do you know what time it is? Time to get ready to be the parents that do the hard thing again. Summer is nearly over. When it is, you get to be the parents that say no!
As I my daughter edited the grammar for this bit she said, "Oh I hated that." Another grown up child who spends a lot of time here said: "I hate that my mom did that too." Guess what my son said?
ReplyDeleteYou got it, he said, "Oh I hate that, we just lose a week of vacation that way."