All About Your Child

Is Your Child Having Enough Sleep every night?

Did you know that, if your child is between:

• 3 to 6 years old, your child should be having 10 to 12 hours of sleep every day
• 7 to 12 years old, your child should be having 10 to 11 hours of sleep every day
• 12 to 18 years old, your child should be having 8 to 9 hours of sleep every day

Growth, concentration, learning abilities and behaviour may be affected when the above recommended amount of sleep is not achieved.

Though the video below mentioned that seeking medical help is necessary if your child is not getting the amount of sleep he or she needs, I personally disagree because the child might have taken a noon nap and hence could not fall asleep earlier at night.

However I totally agree that you should keep your child really active during the day so that he or she would be more ready to sleep when bedtime comes.

If they had been sitting around watching TV or playing computer games most of the time, without burning much calories, they would be more unlikely to fall asleep readily when bedtime comes.

The most crucial part of the day is the two hours before bedtime. For my children, there would be no sweet food or drinks, no scary movies, no electrical games and no activities which create too much ‘high’ emotions in them during those last two ‘awake’ hours.

Do you have a calm-down routine, like a warm bath and a story-telling session for your child during the two hours before bedtime?

Before I move on, I must define the word ‘lecture’. To me, lecturing your child is a long conversation with your child, whereby you talk about the wrong doing, the right value system, the appropriate action and reaction you want your child to have when a certain situation occurs.

It is unlike scolding. Scolding is short, straight to the point and really loud (most of the time). Well, it’s the case for me. *giggle*

Here I am, sitting by the pool, waiting for my boys to end their swimming lesson and there she is, a mother of a 11-12 year old boy, lecturing him over an incident which her son claimed he is unaware of.

“I really don’t know.” the son stayed firmed to his stand.

“Don’t lie to me. You were there, how is it possible that you do not know?” the mother rebuked.

Even though the son kept shouting, “I am not lying!” the mother refused to believe.

After 10mins of that back and forth argument, the son gave in and in all his unwillingness, decided to shut up, since his mother was so adamant about her verdict.

Then the mother moved on to label her son ‘a liar’ and started to talk about how bad lying is and what damaging effects it will have on his life in future.

She is well aware that everyone, which includes parents, helpers, kids were ‘watching’ the Free Show. Somehow her facial expression tells me that she is more focused on the attention that is on her, than ‘really‘ wanting to lecture her son. The more she goes in depth into the topic, the louder she became. I don’t know, maybe it makes her feel good in some way.

Regardless if the child lied or not, in this case, I seriously do not think the lecturing should be done in public, especially when the child is already in his teens or near.

Children have pride and we as parents should respect that.

It is NOT a life and death issue, I think it is perfectly alright to wait till you get home to trash out the topic.

If you must, I think it is more appropriate to bring the child to a quiet corner and not in the midst of the watchful eyes of the public.

I am not saying that the mother is wrong, but what she did is not something I would do. To me, there is no right or wrong parenting. Its just different values and priorities in life that resulted in different parenting styles.

Would you lecture your child in public for all to see?