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Unregistered 07:26 AM 10-14-2011
I watched a child once who NEEDED to sleep 4-5hrs every day. His mom ALWAYS had something planned for them to go to after she picked up. They didn't get home until 9 or 9:30 most nights so he wasn't in bed until 10. She had to wake a crabby boy at 7 to get him here by 7:45. He was always an absolute bear if he didn't get that long nap in. Nine hours of night time sleep just isn't enough for a little fella. He didn't sleep well at night and she always looked at me kind of funny when he'd still be sleeping at 4:30 when she got here, but what else was I to do? She wouldn't stay home to put him to bed at a decent time so I let him sleep. He NEVER napped on the weekends so come Monday, this child pretty much slept all day, exhausted from the weekend. It was SO sad, and what's more sad is that now that he's in school, he doesn't know how to act around other kids. He gets in fights and is just plain naughty. The mom doesn't have a clue what she should do about it and feels like she failed somewhere. They're still doing LOTS of after work activities and yes, I'm guessing it's to keep him busy so she doesn't have to deal with him. She's never understood that while an adult needs 8 hours of sleep, that a child needs MORE sleep.

So, are some parents great parents? Yes, of course! Are some parents not so stellar? Yes, we see it all the time. Do we need to discuss what to do with the great parents? No, not really. Do we need to discuss the not so stellar ones? Yes, how else would we get opinions on how to deal with them? Nobody needs help dealing with the great parents, even though they DO exist.
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