familyfitness

My eight year old–a typically high spirited, artistic, athletic, pliable kid–is having a tremendously difficult time behaving.  It started around day light savings time, which was also the time that spring sprung.  I put him back on his prescribed allergy medicine and waited.  Not a big change.  He is irritable, argumentative and whining.  A lot of whining. Now, certainly kids are to be expected to have their moments–even phases–but his behavior is so extremely out of whack compared to his normal easy going nature that we have looked elsewhere. 

Sleep. We are, as a rule, diligent about bed time. During the winter it was easy to stick to our unique bedtime rituals and have the kids sleeping (now, I never said they STAYED asleep) within short order. With the light change, the addition of outside sports till later in the evening, also came a slow creep toward a later bed time.  Last week we hammered down and went back to the 8pm deadline and wow - by Thursday he was back to his lovable, sweet self.  Unfortunatley (for us and him) the weekend brought with it a wonderful family gathering, a graduation an unexpected nap and three late bedtimes in a row.  This morning–back to the whining.  The crying, the headache, the arguing.  I am absolutely positive with 100% certainty that this kid is TIRED.  Plain old, tired. 

The problem with being tired (seems like very adult I know is tired) when you’re a kid is that you lack the reserve and stamina as well as the emotional fortitude to keep on going on. So it will be back to early bed times, despite the light and late night practices. We will maneuver and manipulate his schedule to be sure he gets the hours he needs.  While it may be a challenge to send him to the land of nod–what with the guitar lessons, soccer practices, baseball games and end of school excitment–it will be worth it to have my little guy back in functioning order.   

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