If you sang the title of this blog I think we are meant to be friends, you're my people if your mind immediately went to John and Olivia belting it out. Summer nights are some of the best, I think we can all agree. Whether you spend them on the deck in your back yard, sitting in a lawn chair outside at a campsite or staring out at some water, they are a treat.
Let's talk about what to do with these kids of ours when we are wanting to enjoy those summer nights. I think we can agree that there are 2 choices, get them to bed early so you can kick back and relax or let them stay up and have some extra fun on those summer nights.
Option 1: I recommend this one most of the time with a sprinkling of option 2. I don't know about you but I am usually done parenting by their regular bedtime. This may sounds harsh but hear me out, I really enjoy my days with my kids and when it's bedtime, I'm ready to have some me time. And if you feel the same I encourage you to not feel bad about it or make any excuses. It's OK to love and enjoy the heck out those kids all day (well most of the time) and also be ready to have some time to yourself. So if you are like me, do yourself a favor and get the kids to bed on time so that you can kick back and relax. If other kids are staying up late, and are old enough to play along, I say have them fake that they too are going to bed to skip some of the push back from your kids.
Option 2: Let them stay up late, be ready to ride the wave of overtiredness both tonight and the next day. Allow for some extra down time and patience the next day and enjoy your night of being the fun parent who let them stay up late. Have you ever had a personal trainer explain the 80/20 rule where you should eat healthily 80% of the time and allow wiggle room 20% of the time? Once you have a kid with independent sleep skills or who has completed sleep training you can consider roughly following this rule for sleep too, so if you are away 5 nights, allow 1 late one but try to stick to a regular-ish bedtime 4 of the nights.
Let the baby sleep when you can, stick to routine when possible, but mostly, enjoy those su-hu-mmer niiiiiiiiighhhts. And if you need some sleep solutions, you know where to find me.
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Happy Sleeping,
Your Sleep Coach, Corie