Useful co-sleeping tip #3: The years of young children are the years of tiredness.
A very intelligent friend of mine let me in on this secret after his third child was born. It made me realize that sleep is worth sacrificing for children. I hadn't sleep through the night before I was a father so why should I expect to after I became a father. I also willing gave up sleep in college to play video games, do homework, eat pizza, drink, and go to concerts. It seemed that I should be willing to forego sleep for my children if I was willing to give it up to beat Final Fantasy VIII. Despite the very cool junction system employed by FF VII, raising my children has been far more rewarding.
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3 comments:
the problem with this example is that in college your over-tiredness the next day only negatively effected yourself. You are now responsible for 2 little ones. I believe a good night's rest to be very underrated by society and there are many studies to confirm that lack of sleep has a huge negative impact on an individual's ability to perform at any given task. Of course with a new born this is unavoidable, and it's a cross for parents to bear.
Good point. I hadn't considered the implications towards other little ones. As parents, we must get enough rest to do our very important jobs well.
I understand you point, Sophie, but I don't think that Jim was suggesting that co-sleeping necessarily is a choice for less sleep. Obviously, we have a responsiblity as parents to act in a way that best meets the needs of all within the family. If cosleeping were causing up to be sleep deprived we wouldn't do it. For us, co-sleeping works well to help us get the most sleep possible.
If we ever find that it doesn't work so well...as when Maria started to wiggle too much and keep us up... we'll find something else that better meets our needs.
As I understand Jim's post, he's just saying that as parents of young children, we shouldn't expect to always get an uninterrupted night of sleep. If we had that expectation we would more often than not be disappointed. I found the lack of sleep thing very annoying with Maria, until I accepted the fact that there would be times when she needed me at night, sometimes after several nights or weeks of sleeping through the night. This acceptance has led me to be a better parent to her, as I'm not as fixated on "when is she going to sleep through the night?".
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