Creatures of habit

Children are by nature creatures of habit, well at least my children are. During the week, they get up, eat breakfast, play, get dressed, go to grammys, eat lunch, take naps, eat snack, play, eat dinner and get ready for bed at the same time. They know the schedule and what to expect. I believe that they are much better behaved when our daily routines follow this schedule. As a result I strive to stay as close to our regular schedule on weekends and special occasions as possible. If it is not possible to follow the schedule we make modifications to make it work. For example, if we are planning on a late dinner with friends I would feed the kids a large snack at their regular dinner time. I tried changing the schedule on weekends and special occassions a time or two when Reese was younger, but once Aidan came along it was not worth the fight of dealing with two crabby kids because I wanted to do something that interrupted their schedule. As a result, if we want to go shopping during the weekend, we will go before or after nap time. If we go to a party and the kids get tired, we head home and put them to bed. Some people think that this makes us not fun to hang around or that we let the kids control our lives. I think that it works for our family and that is all that matters to me.