Posts Tagged ‘Valerie Reiss’
Parents Need Sleep Too
Parents need sleep just as much as their kids do. My good friend Valerie Reiss wrote a great article for Wanderlust offering some tips about how to do that.
Boy toddler. A child running in the park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This line made me smile: “I now understand why no one says, ‘Sleep while your toddler sleeps.'” Because toddlers don’t always sleep the way babies do. Babies, because they’re, like, babies, will eventually sleep for a decent amount of hours because they really need it, and they haven’t figured out how to belligerently decide that they would rather be playing or talking or just running around, as in the photo above. (A note on said photo: I have no idea who that child is; it’s a public domain image from Wikipedia. Notice, however, that he is not sleeping.)
Then there’s teething. Oh, by the Lords of Kobol, teething. That just sucked. There’s no way around it — you want your kids to have teeth, and those teeth literally push their way through your child’s gums. Think about how insanely painful that must be. You think you could sleep through that? No you couldn’t.
Still. You need sleep. Everyone does, even if they don’t think they do, but parents in particular must, must, must catch some zzz’s. Trust me. I speak from experience. Not sleeping is bad for you, and also bad for your children. Like your kids, you will be cranky if you don’t get enough sleep. This will not be fun for anyone.
Valerie’s article (link below) points out why you need sleep and offers some specific tips on how to get the zzz’s you need, even if only in small doses. Napping is fine. More than fine. Napping is AWESOME. I’d actually like to be napping right now.
All this writing about sleep is making me sleepy. Well, that and staying up late watching Sunday Night Football. Maybe I’ll take a naaaaaaaaaaaaaa……..
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Source: Parents: Power Down to Power Through (Wanderlust, by Valerie Reiss)
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content.)
DaddyTips Show and Tell – Holistic Living Edition
We are nothing if not holistic in our house. Wait, I thought “holistic” was the name of a new Wii game. No?
OK, I’m not all that holistic or spiritual or whatever. But I appreciate those who are. And I do eat organic stuff, and just joined a farm share. So maybe we’re a little more ho-ho than I think.
Anyway, here are some links:
- Gorgeous, Healthy Recipes & My Favorite Salad: by Valerie Reiss, via BeliefNet’s FreshLiving blog. I’ll need to do a better job of actually collecting recipes once the farm share food starts coming in. I don’t think the family will be content with my bacheloresque method of cooking vegetables, which is (a) steam, (b) add olive oil, (c) eat. Yawn. I could do it because taste isn’t as important to me as convenience. When you cook for other people, though, you need to pay attention to what they care about. And frankly, there’s nothing inherently evil about following a recipe. I need to remember that. Maybe I’ll make a sign or something.
- How to Be Persuasive (and Not Get Persuaded): also by by Valerie Reiss from BeliefNet’s FreshLiving blog. (She’s a friend.) It’s not “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (although I’ve been told that’s a good book to read, despite the cringe/cliche factor). It has more to do with advertising and the things they (THEY) use to get us (YOU! ME! YOUR CHILDREN!) to buy stuff (CRAP! It’s all CRAP!). Valerie takes a couple of the items to another level, such as this one: “Giving someting away makes it less desirable. (This might be a good one to apply to our relationships–if we over-give, we can be under-valued.)” Indeed. This one, “Admitting you’re wrong makes people trust you more,” might be true for everyone except the President of the United States.
- Intent.com is a strange site. There’s a lot of “I intend to” do whatever. Usually it’s positive, as in “I intend on making today my best possible day,” rather than, oh I don’t know, “I intend to transport a hooker across state lines despite the fact that I’m married and am Governor of New York.” Then there’s this one: “My Intent is to breathe in and out all day :)” I should hope so! I see these “intend” statements and it makes me think of Yoda. “Do, or do not. There is no try.” (Here’s video if you, for some strange reason, don’t know what I’m talking about.) I mean, who INTENDS to do something bad? Or stupid? Or immoral? I guess the idea is something of a “think positive and good things will happen”/”The Secret” type thing. Whatever gets you through the night is all right, I suppose, but at some point doesn’t it make sense to, like, think in terms of actually DOING something?
- Deepak Chopra would like us to “Intend the Return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.” I mean, sure. That would be nice. I’m guessing diplomacy would work better, though.
- Let’s close out with another Deepak post, this one about what the proper age is to teach children meditation. Best advice in there is this: “It’s important that they don’t feel pressured to meditate because the parents want them to.” Can you imagine? “Dammit Jimmy, I gave you a friggin’ mantra! Now close your eyes and chant! CHANT, DAMN YOU!”
Image: Amazon
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