Here's the thing. I'm a night owl by nature. As a kid, no matter how early I was up, I could never go to sleep early; not even if I laid in a dark, quiet room for a LONG time. Motherhood has forced me into living the lie (oops, Freudian slip... I mean life) of a morning person. Only one of my seven children seems to take after her father who is more of a morning person than anyone has a right to be (the man doesn't need an alarm to get up at 4am... how twisted is that?). My bad luck it's my almost 3 year old, the one I desperately wish would sleep in!
I'm slowly discovering (I'm a little dense), that our personal family rhythms need to be honored; tweaked perhaps, with some basic structure added to keep our slothful natures in check, but otherwise honored. See, I enjoy some peace and quiet when I first wake up. My brain is fuzzy and I don't respond well to needs and demands (which my kids so excel at). I need time to read, or think, or to get myself organized while they're all blissfully sleeping. So in spite of my best efforts, they're up later than I'd like.... because of me.
And they are SO like me. They also need that time to gather themselves and come to focus when they get up. They want blankets (even in summer), hot cocoa (even in summer), and books, or crayons and paper. Why is that a bad thing? While I shower, meditate, pray, eat and dress, they have time to slowly bloom. It's all good, right? Then WHY do I feel so guilty? It all comes down to comparing myself against other families... those "ideal" home school families. Any time I do that, I always compare my worst to others' best. When will I learn this and just be content to do what feels right for us? I'm working on relaxing about it this year and working with our natural rhythms. When I do this, I'm happier, they're happier..... isn't that the goal?
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