Strollerderby
Raising Kids in the White House: Routine You Can Believe In
According to the New York Times, the main way the Obama parents are keeping their girls’ feet on the ground is by keeping their routine steady. Even when dad’s flying around the country and mom is making appearances, grandma is home to pick up the slack and keep things running according to schedule.
I admit, when I think about how I’d handle something like raising kids in the White House (and yes, it’s a fantastical stretch to think about it), I must concur that routine would be my primary tool for keeping everyone sane. Why? Because our routine keeps us from falling apart in our own, admittedly smaller, but still challenging challenges.
Since my kids were tiny babies, I’ve observed them settle into their own routines (beginning with eating and sleeping and pooping, moving onto playing actively versus enjoying quiet time as they get a little older) and then protected those routines by putting concrete walls around them. We have a schedule that is the same within maybe a 5% margin of flexibility that we follow almost every single day, almost no matter where we are. (Obviously on an airplane or in a multi-hour car trip, there has to be a bit more flex.)
I am a firm believer in using routines to give kids a sense of security, stability and confidence that they can understand their world and it will not spin out of control. I also find that keeping to a routine 99% of the time makes for an easier rebound when that routine is necessarily disrupted for an emergency or special occasion.
How about your family? Do you find routines helpful? Do you have a schedule? How rigidly do you hold onto it?
see also:
They Say: Teens Want to Help Their Parents
image: nytimes.com
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6 Comments
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amRoutines make our lives go a lot smoother. Children on the spectrum need routines, so even if I wanted to be all unscheduled, I can’t be for the sake of the kids. That doesn’t mean we have no wiggle room but meals, homework, baths and bed are all pretty much the same. Or all hell will break loose.
Shannon LC Cate commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amcoolteambly,
Don’t worry about it yet. When they’re that little, you just have to survive. You can worry about routines (if you want to) when he’s older!
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amMy son is nine weeks old. I can’t lie, we don’t have that much of a routine. I work full time, so in the mornings, we have a routine of me getting ready for work, him getting ready to spend the day with my MIL, and us playing for an hour or so before we head out the door. On my two days off with him and evenings after work, we kind of let him lead the way, with bedtime around ten. I don’t get home until six-thirty, so I cherish the time we spend together. He already sleeps through the night (ten to seven), so I don’t feel guilty putting him down later.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI started my son on a schedule when he was 3 months old, that included an early bedtime, and I credit that with helping him sleep through the night. He just knows when it’s time to go to sleep. Like EllaAnne, we have a flow to the day — not a strict schedule, put a predictable pattern — and it works very well. It helps keep fussiness to a minimum, for all of us. I think that even as adults, we crave a certain amount of routine and predictability on most days.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI like to have a flow to the day that stays the same, and so do the kids, but we’re not like, “Oh it’s 10:15, time to eat a snack and then have 30 minutes of playtime..” Kids do better knowing what’s coming, especially really little kids, and I am a BIG believer in an early bedtime.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWell– it seems that our little toddler trained *us* to develop a routine. I’m kind of anti-routine myself, but it ended up being very natural.
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