Jack Black and the key to good parenting
Jack Black gave an interview this week to Parade magazine, where he shared some parenting insights. Top of his list – sleep. He said
“The more sleep I get, the better dad I am. Parenting is 90% energy; if you don’t have it, then there tend to be some lazy TV-watching days with the kids, and that ain’t gettin’ it done.”
Lots of people are talking about it online, mostly in a “well duh! Of course sleep helps Jack” kind of way. But I don’t think the importance of sleep can be understated. If you read this blog regularly, you’ve probably realised by now that I am obsessed with sleep. I think that’s what happens when you suffer from broken sleep for so long. Sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture, and yet it’s something that most parents suffer from once they have children. People always talk about how sleep deprivation is a killer that first year, but that fails to acknowledge all those kids who still aren’t sleeping after a year. Or it indirectly implies that it only lasts a year… I know it came as a shock to me that Little Man was still waking regularly at night at 12 months and at 13 months.
And when your child isn’t sleeping through the night, if you’re silly enough to mention it to people, they always offer up a solution as though after twelve months you haven’t tried everything. 🙂
But now, this week…Little Man is finally sleeping through. For the past week he has slept 11.5 hours straight every night. And we’re afraid to jinx it! The only thing I can see that has changed is that he is walking properly now. So he must be burning more energy and it’s causing him to sleep more soundly at night. I’m just praying he keeps it up, because the difference it makes is incredible.
If you’ve had a good night’s sleep, your capacity for patience is so much greater. And when the meal you spent the past 40 minutes preparing is point-blank refused, or worse, up-ended on the floor, God knows you need patience!
The best part about getting sleep is how much more energy it gives me for actually enjoying my time with Little Man. When I collected him from creche this evening, we got to spend an hour chasing each other around the sitting room, and playing with a balloon. Wonderful. 🙂 I don’t know how long he’ll continue to sleep well for, but I can tell you this – while it lasts I’m going to enjoy it!
Apparently ‘wakeful’ children are intelligent, sociable and delightful company. As mother to a nearly 6 month old little man myself who on a good night wakes every three hours for a feed and thinks 5 minute power snoozes constitute naps I reckon this is something said to parents of wakeful children to make them feel better! That said it’s amazing how you learn to function on broken sleep and I’m clinging to the fact that it’s not forever and he’s growing up so fast I’ll soon be wondering where this time went. Mostly in a blur I reckon. I can generally find energy. It gets to me after a bad night and I feel I should do more than I do on those days but then as long as the basics are done on 4 hours of broken sleep I DARE anyone to criticise! I look forward to a whole nights sleep…
I promise you, when you get a good night’s sleep again, you will appreciate it like you never did before. Because you’re never entirely sure it will last!
Apparently ‘wakeful’ children are intelligent, sociable and delightful company. As mother to a nearly 6 month old little man myself who on a good night wakes every three hours for a feed and thinks 5 minute power snoozes constitute naps I reckon this is something said to parents of wakeful children to make them feel better! That said it’s amazing how you learn to function on broken sleep and I’m clinging to the fact that it’s not forever and he’s growing up so fast I’ll soon be wondering where this time went. Mostly in a blur I reckon. I can generally find energy. It gets to me after a bad night and I feel I should do more than I do on those days but then as long as the basics are done on 4 hours of broken sleep I DARE anyone to criticise! I look forward to a whole nights sleep…
I promise you, when you get a good night’s sleep again, you will appreciate it like you never did before. Because you’re never entirely sure it will last!