What I Learned Over Christmas Break about Schedules, TV and Getting Outside

Okay, so it’s mid-January now. But I can’t get Christmas break out of my head, from the few days in our hometown to the aftermath of getting home. Big Roo was absolutely crazy-hyper like I’ve never seen him. From someone who’s used to an active yet relatively well-behaved two year old, I wasn’t sure what the hell happened.

Christmas break at daycare this year added up to about a week and a half. During that time, there were plenty of quality moments – spending time with family, watching Big Roo open his presents, goofing-off with the grandparents. But there were also two-year-old meltdowns, hitting and kicking for no apparent reason and general i-can’t-stand-still-and-look-like-i’m-doing-the-pee-pee-dance-all-the-time hyperness. I was bewildered, many times in tears of frustration. The chill, funny Big Roo gave way to a defiant, cranky Big Roo, especially when we got back home from our trip to visit family.

On the first Monday of 2010, daycare resumed and everything settled down for the most part. But Christmas break kept gnawing at me. What did we do wrong? Is he ALWAYS like this and I just didn’t realize it because he’s in daycare 5 days a week? Surely, I knew my kid. But guilty working mama was creeping in with all the “what ifs.” He wasn’t typically like this on the weekends nor before and after work.

At the risk of sounding like I didn’t know my own kid, I explained my concerns to his daycare teachers and asked if he’s been acting like this lately. To my relief, his behavior seemed to be a fluke. Apparently all the kids had been a little more hyper in the days before Christmas and for the first few days of coming back into the daycare routine. Whew!

So I thought about this some more and realized it was the cumulation of not sticking to my own parenting tactics regarding three things that doomed us: schedules, TV and getting outside. Smack a big “DUH” on my forehead, right? We’ll just call this all the reinforcement I’ll ever need to keep my parenting skills from slipping into an abyss.

Here’s what I learned from what I’ve affectionately dubbed “The Toxic Threesome.”

Keeping Sleep Schedules
I know the importance of schedules. I really do. But when we’re herding ourselves through our hometown – from my mother’s house, my father’s house and my in-laws – IN ONE DAY – schedules get tossed out with the Christmas wrapping paper. Naps pretty much became non-existent and bedtime became 9:30 or later instead of 8:00ish. We ate at odd times too and at all sorts of different places. Our prize for all this foolishness was that Big Roo turned into a hyperactive terror.

When we got home, I assumed things would go back to normal. But even though daycare was closed the week after Christmas, I still had to work. I was trying to save up vacation for my maternity leave and Daddy Roo had a massive deadline due on 12/30. Luckily, I got permission to work from home the entire week after Christmas. Sweet! I’d get to spend some time with Big Roo, weaving work in and out throughout the day. I knew I could count on a nap to plug away as well.

Instead, naps didn’t come for most of the week and when they did they were REALLY late, knocking off our evening schedule. I’ll save you the details but it all resulted in a cranky, off-his-schedule kid.

What did I learn? I learned that while we don’t have to be militant about naptime and bedtime (OMG- it’s 8:03 and he’s not in bed yet!), we still need to stick to some sort of sleep schedule when we travel. And yes, that means that family visits get spread out instead of every grandparent seeing Big Roo every day we’re there. It’ll be inconvenient to us and probably inconvenient to other people too. But with Little Roo arriving, the schedule calls for a little respect from all of us.

Limiting Television
Again, I know that too much television isn’t a good thing for kids (or anyone really). And typically Big Roo watches maybe an hour a day and sometimes even less. But during the week that I worked from home, all bets were off. He watched DVRed shows such as Jungle Junction and Mickey’s Christmas. Over and over. While this let me squeeze in some work here and there, I DO think it contributed to his rambunctiousness.

In fact, I was researching and found this Baby Center article perfectly titled “Should I worry if my 2-year-old can’t sit still?” which explained that TV “while sometimes calming, does little to encourage active attention.” AMEN to that!

What did I learn? I learned that I need to come up with more ways to entertain Big Roo if and when I’m ever working from home. This goes for other times too when Daddy Roo and I are trying to get something done in the house. Pull out the books, the toys, the puzzles… anything but more TV. While I still don’t believe that TV is evil, I’ll be more aware of the amount of TV he watches because it really does seem to make him more hyper.

Getting Outside
Christmas break was frickin’ COLD. I’m a Southern wuss when it comes to cold weather, which is why living in Phoenix didn’t bother me one bit. Being outside when it’s below 30 is NO FUN unless it’s snowing and then I can only take so much. Cold temps combined with trying to squeeze some work productivity out of my workday meant that we just didn’t get outside.

Oh yes, I also can’t forget that I’m pregnant and had been quite sore for a few weeks there, turning myself into Mama Lazy Bones. So, no park, no walks, not even running around the backyard. Instead, we were inside and antsy with a small dose of cabin fever.

What did I learn? Even if when I’m busy, even when it’s bitingly cold out (don’t mock me- 30 degree IS cold), we need to get outside. A nice stroll around the block would have done wonders for both of us. The outdoors have a calming effect and it’s been proven.

A University of Illinois study of children with ADHD found that performing activities in “green settings” can reduce symptoms. If it works for children with true attention-deficit disorders, it can surely work wonders on my kid who’s just going through a rough week. Now how’s that for an incentive to turn off the electronics and get outside?

Like I said before, all of these lessons have a hearty “duh” component to them. OF COURSE, I should stick to a schedule, OF COURSE I should limit TV, OF COURSE I need to get outside. But sometimes this little thing called life gets in the way of all that’s perfect and ideal and we have to roll with it. Too bad I rolled too far over and landed in a ditch. But at least I learned something from it all. That’s part of what parenting is all about right?

Tagged as: crazy kids, going insane, Mommy Ramblings, outdoors