If you read my newsletter each week, you know that I think my mom is one of the most amazing humans on this planet.
She’s loyal, kind, loving, and all-around one of the coolest people I know.
She’s also a fantastic grandma! She’s not the type to sit on the floor with a kid for hours and play with toys BUT she’ll take you to do the most fun things and there’s never a dull moment!
This week, she’s featured as my guest blogger. Her insight is pretty cool. Read on and enjoy it!
Grandma’s View:
My grandsons celebrated their birthdays this summer. They turned eight and ten years old. Hard to believe!
As I reflect over the last decade since their birth, and my joy in being geographically close enough to them to share family times and special school and sports days with them, as well as being able to give their parents some time with each other ,while the boys had overnights with “Apple” and “Momo” (our nicknames), it seems that their
Sleep training in their first months of life is no small part of their development in so many ways all through these years.
As I mentioned, I have been fortunate to be “on sight” often throughout these years. The first milestone in this training that I noticed was the ease at which the boys accustomed themselves, even as toddlers, to sleeping at Grandma’s, in a bed other than their own.
Assured of where their parents were and that they would return soon, the boys would settle down most nights at their regular bedtime, and sleep through the night without a struggle.
Both boys are good students and excellent athletes. Very active and interested in
camping, fishing, riding bikes, and swimming, etc. they soon easily discarded their naps when school started in lieu of a good solid long night’s sleep and regular bedtimes.
Of course, they are competitive with each other, like most siblings, but they have many friends and are extremely sensitive to and drawn to younger children, babies, and children with disabilities.
I do not see this in many children their age.
It seems that most are in need of a lot of reassurance. My take on that is that they have a pretty good sense of who they are as human beings and are not in need of proving themselves to their peers. Teaching them independent sleep skills from an early age just may have given them a sense of safety and confidence that has carried into their successful social interactions and compassionate treatment of others.
Another observation of mine is that though they have very different personalities, both boys are more accepting than some of their peers when it comes to delayed gratification.
Of course, they will at times get an idea in their heads and push to get their way immediately, but I find them to be more reasonable then their developmental stage would suggest. They are curious to learn and will listen and hear that adults do know better some times!
So as I read JoAnna’s newsletter each week, I cannot help but want to share with you parents that it is evident to me that teaching your children to be amazing sleepers in a loving (not perfect) home is the most valuable gift you can give yourselves and your baby for a lifetime of self-confidence in this challenging world.
Liz Armstrong
(Proud grandma of Aidan & Colby Inks)
