Today I am thrilled to be guest posting for my good friend Lauren of The Military Wife and Mom. Her blog is fantastic for new parents as well as those in the military! However, she really wanted to know how I created a successful stay at home schedule while I had multiple kids to manage. So, I wrote this guest post for her, sharing how the basic element, the key, to my good schedule all revolves around one simple thing….
When you have multiple young children at home, a good stay at home schedule is pretty important, at least if you want to have order and not lose your sanity. This schedule will look different for every family, and every situation, but I feel like there is one key ingredient to a truly successful stay at home schedule – sleep.
Nap times should be sacred, bedtimes well established, and good sleep habits and training instigated. The benefits of revolving your schedule around sleep are for your child, but also for yourself as the stay at home parent.
As a mom of three young children, including twins, I know the difficulties of anti-nappers, and anti-sleepers. I also know the annoyance of staying at home instead of going out at certain times of the day because little boy needs a nap. I know that you have more flexibility when your child doesn’t nap or doesn’t have a rigid bedtime. But, I swear, setting up your stay at home schedule around sleep will be beneficial to all. […]
Hop over to her blog to read the rest of my post where I cover my 4 Reasons Your Stay at Home Schedule Should Revolve Around Sleep, as well as tips on Managing Sleep Schedules with Multiple Young Children.
But tell me, do you make your schedule revolve around naps, or are you more “go with the flow”?
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Corinna says
I don’t know how I was fortunate enough to have 2 daughters who are so easy-going, but I don’t know how I would have managed it otherwise. I think a schedule is wise if you have multiple young children but we ended up with a 3 year age gap between the two. It was the perfect situation for us because the 3 year old was a great age to sort of help out and wasn’t in diapers while I was caring for an infant. I still wonder what it would have been like with twins and I doubt I’ll ever find out, but I’m happy with the end result 🙂 And it helped in being a SAHM because scheduling wasn’t as necessary in getting the children to specific places at specific times on a daily basis.
Katelyn Fagan says
There was a three year gap between my twins and my son. And I agree it was so nice of a gap! The girls helped so much with their baby brother and could do so much more for themselves and weren’t in diapers anymore either.
Elizabeth says
I must admit that a schedule probably saved my bacon with twins. I think I underwent some criticism for it (people would come over and I wouldn’t wake up the girls, or I was so set on my nap schedule that it affected other social parts of my life) but it maintained my sanity. And, I will swear to this day that is one of the big reasons why my little ones sleep so well now! My one five year old has already become a “scheduler” herself with a calendar and checklist…hopefully that is a good thing!
Katelyn Fagan says
Yes Elizabeth – Schedules totally saved my sanity with twins, and I believe set up a good foundation for their nap longevity. And, yeah, i wouldn’t wake up my babies/toddlers/preschoolers if people stopped by to visit. No way!