We have finally let go of a "bed time" for Nate.
So many things have been changing around here. We have been implementing a lot of the parenting ideals we have aspired to since we became parents. One of those things has been to (finally) respect Nate's body clock and let him stay up with us until he's ready to go to bed. Most nights.
The thing that really made this easy was that Nick and I don't watch TV anymore! We have a TV, and it has never been hooked up to cable (or even the antenna), but we still downloaded shows that we wanted to watch, and most nights we were both home, we would watch some shows after the kids went to bed. Lately though, life has been super interesting, and we have been reading and talking and listening to music instead. When Nate started asking to just hang out instead of going to bed, we had no reason to say no!
Sometimes we do feel like watching a movie that we think might be too adult or intense for him, and we ask him to go read in bed instead of read hanging out with us. Now that we're showing him so much more respect, he is happy to head off to bed early when we ask him to on occasion, and he completely understands because he has no desire to watch a movie that is going to scare him. Win-win.
Usually he reads, if we're reading. Or he'll chat, if we're chatting. Or if everyone is kind of doing their own thing, he might get a bit more creative and build an epic marble run, or draw a picture.
Bottom line: Nate is rad and I love having him around.
Posts
That is fabulous! You should have brought this up at Unschooling Rocks! Roundtable yesterday. I would have loved to talk about it with you. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I should have! This was a draft already, I just finally got it up.
ReplyDelete