Routines will preserve sanity and help you increase productivity as a parent. These are things that are related and still different subjects because they often just don’t go hand in hand!
The Benefits of the Routine
As a parent if you haven’t discovered it, a routine is a life saver. It doesn’t have to be like everyone else’s, but having a routine will save a lot time, trouble, and help your children out big time. It will also help you as an adult to be much more productive in everything that you do.
Routines give you a plan and they help you focus your efforts on different things throughout the day. They will also increase your efficiency on the things that you actually have time to work on. Routines will help you avoid getting distracted by time wasters. They will also help you fit in the important things like exercise, relaxing, and work.
As a parent having the routine of now it is time to play, eat, clean or whatever will be great for you and your kids. The older kids will be happy to know what to expect. They will secretly like that you have dinner at 6pm and they are expected to be there. It helps them to feel loved and wanted. It also gives them a firm footing for all the other craziness that they have in their lives because they are likely dealing with school, friends, and other activities. Younger children will absolutely thrive and live by it.
Having a solid routine will be a major developmental help for your babies and younger kids. I am not sure if you new it, but humans by nature hate any kind of change in our world. Mentally it is very difficult to process and deal with. This is a big part of why we hate starting a new project, or moving to a new place, and especially letting go of people that have died. Think about how hard it is for you as an adult and then consider how hard not having a routine that you understand and can count on will be for a baby, or small child. They have basically no control in their world. They are totally dependent on their caregivers. Having a routine in their daily lives will empower them. They will think they have control on at least parts of their lives, and they will have things that they can count on a regular basis. This will help then to relax and be happier. They won’t have to mentally deal with the many surprises and changes that are so unsettling and can throw them off for weeks.
Where Lack of a Routine Can Kill Your Kids
Throw them off for weeks? We had a period a while back where all three of our kids, the 4 year old, 2 year old, and 9 month old weren’t eating well, were all sick, hardly slept through the night, and were little stinkers to each other and to us their parents. We thought we were giving them everything they needed and wanted but realized that we had gone off our routine of set meal, play, and bedtimes. With a little work we stopped the interruptions to this routine as much as possible from church, work, friends, and play. In three days all three kids were healthy once again, happy (even when kids are content and happy they will fight a little bit, but it was back to only a little bit), eating well, and back to sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night. The routine made a night and day difference.
My wife and I are quite sure that when we are off our routine of set meal times the kids don’t eat very well. When we put them to bed at different times they sleep worse, and less. When they don’t have a set schedule to count on it wears them down mentally and physically and they will have a harder time being healthy. This recent spout of no routine lasted almost 3 weeks because of the holidays, and vacations that made it so hard to be on a routine.
As an adult having a routine with kids helps me keep some sanity in life. If you don’t have more than two kids you just haven’t experienced how consuming in the long run these two or more kids can actually be. Having a routine helps me still exercise, help get the house cleaned, and have time to spend with just my spouse in addition to being a parent and surviving the craziness of having a few kids.
With or without kids a routine will help you to be more productive. You will have less problem trying to decide what to do next and you will be able to focus on what your doing at the very moment more easily than if you don’t have a routine.
So here are my tips for getting a routine going in your life.
- Set a time that you’re going to go to bed and wake up each day so you get enough sleep. This is different for you and your kids. Carefully consider how much sleep you need to regularly get. Hold to it! Adults usually need at least 6 to 8 hours, teenagers 8 to 10 hours, and younger children 10 to 14 hours, and babies often need 14 to 18 or more. Sleep is important!
- Eat your meals at the same time each day. This will help your body to function more consistently and effortlessly over time.
- Give yourself personal time to exercise and follow creative pursuits each day if only for a few minutes. This will help you be happy, healthy and productive in other areas over time.
- Organize your craziness into as small a block of time as possible. Run you errands and other chores that are not everyday day things all on a certain day or time. My wife tries to only drag the kids to go shopping once a week and then only after they get a good meal, and nap. She also tries to break up the errands with a stop at the park. This helps the kids to be much happier when she is out and about.
- Minimize the disruptions to your routine. With kids we have found that if we don’t mess it up more than once or twice a week, they will be just fine jumping right back into it and not suffer many negative effects of being thrown off.
Life happens. Try and minimize the craziness and things will fall into place nicely! I can definitely stand as a witness to that!
What part of your routine is the most productive? What is your favorite part?
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