PARENTING April 18, 2005 Issue

PEACEFUL PARENTING

LARISSA SNOREK-YATES

I REMEMBER the day well: I ran around all morning while my four-year-old, Aiden, was at various activities. I wanted to finish my list of things to do by 1:00 so that I would be completely free to focus on getting Aiden down for a nap.

Since becoming a mom, I had always felt it was vital to get my child to sleep well. I often found myself thinking about the hours of sleep he'd had or would need to get. If he didn't take a nap in the afternoon, I felt a disaster lay ahead—that he wouldn't survive dinner or be able to be his best self.

It's not that making sure that Aiden got his sleep wasn't a good idea. But the level of focus I had on it—as if ensuring sleep was somehow the ultimate answer to being a good parent —didn't feel right. Would this really solve all the problems of the parental universe?

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