Harnessing the power of priority with children
“It’s just amazing how improved my day has become since I’ve added more structure into our schedule.”
From a bright, young mother, we were again reminded of the huge difference order can make for a growing, active family.
It wasn’t that her life had NO order. In this case, it was more about applying order to the next level in her home.
Earlier that month, she had confided that she was very frustrated with their freewheeling home life. Between the demands of children, household, husband, business and her own needs, she felt like a feather in the wind.
As we talked, we showed how a few strategic changes could help, which turned out to be just what they needed.
After years of helping families, we have noticed that chaos with children typically falls into several categories. In the rest of this and the next two articles we’ll identify nine areas of common chaos – leadership, sleep/rest, meals, potty training, play, TV/video, computer, friends/sleepovers, family activities – and suggestions to help bring order to them.
LEADERSHIP: In our effort to be gentle, compassionate guides, we adults often give up too much leadership. Most children have strong feelings about things that concern them personally. Then, they soon learn how to make the their supervising adults miserable until they cave in rather than engage in emotional tugs-of-war.
In the end, however, making order out of chaos is a matter of firm (but gentle) adult leadership that follows a plan that both the children and their supervising adults know and understand.
SLEEP TIMES: Most difficulty in this category begins by failing to understand that each day starts the night before. When children don’t get enough rest, they are hard to get up, become easily upset when things go wrong and find it difficult to follow set practices.
Therefore, it becomes important to have specific bed times and a plan that prepares them. Here’s our extremely effective template: ‘From Bedtime Blues to Everytime Snooze’. Follow it carefully and you will solve at least 98% of your bedtime chaos.
That’s all for now. Watch the next four articles for more ideas to truly experience ‘The Triumph of Order’!
