Sleep Training My Kids Makes Me Feel Like A Parenting Superstar

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I am still a fairly new parent with just two and half years under my belt. So, I don’t have many parenting tips and tricks, other than what I’ve read on the Internet. Writing for Mommyish has helped a lot because I get to read the good and the bad from the general public, but still. Most of the time, I have no clue what I’m doing.

As I look back over my ”long history” of parenting, I still don’t really know what I’m doing. Of course, once we had our second son, there were several things that my husband and I did differently. We tried to relax a bit more, and we also shrugged whenever he fell down the stairs. We also tried to ease up on his schedule.

Yes, I am one of those moms: The scheduling mom. But before you think me completely psycho, my husband was also on board because he loves to follow directions. When I was pregnant with my first son, I read an article on BabyCenter that presented us with a crossroads. Will you feed on demand, or will you schedule your feedings? This soon led to an article on sleep training and scheduling that I embraced with open arms because I love, love, love my schedule.

Looking back, I’m sure all of our friends and family thought we were absolutely insane. I had my little printed sleeping and feeding schedule that I took with me everywhere and gave to any family member who babysat. I feel a little foolish now because I’m more relaxed, but I still believe that this was one parenting thing I did right.

I know it’s crass to brag about parenting, but this is truly the only thing I feel proud of. My husband and I sacrificed our social life and were obsessed with the 7 PM bedtime, and it paid off. We also frustratingly and painstakingly stuck to the ”master schedule” that we still loosely use today. Our kids sleep from 7 PM to 7 AM, and I don’t feel a need to apologize for it or downplay it””because we had to be the crazy scheduling people for years to get this result.

Every parent is different. Every parent parents differently. Every parent makes different choices for their kids without knowing the outcome. I don’t have much I can be proud of in my few years as a young parent, but I put sleep training at the top of my list.

(Image: Tiplyashina Evgeniya/Shutterstock)

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