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Monday, July 14, 2008

5 Minute Rule

Back in school, the 5 minute rule was how long we would wait for a teacher to show up before bailing out of a class.

The 5 minute rule has an entirely new meaning now that I am a mom.

Whether he is swimming in the pool, playing at the park, or watching his favorite show, my three year old always asks for "5 more minutes."

Now that he is three, he often protests taking a nap. But I finally figured out a way that gets him to nap(at least most of the time)...the 5 minute rule. I simply ask him to close his eyes and take a 5 minute nap. I explain that as soon as he takes just a 5 minute nap he can go back to playing. He understands that 5 minutes is a short amount of time so he thinks he is getting off easy.
The beauty of the 5 minute rule...once he is asleep, he goes well beyond the 5 minutes, usually taking at least an hour nap.

The result: a happy, rested child that is ready to run around the house like Indiana Jones screaming, "Start the plane, Jacques!" Oh, and a happy mommy, too!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Les -
This is so funny because Kelly was JUST saying the exact same thing about her 3-yr old daughter, Brooklyn. She was trying to figure out where the "5 more minutes, mommy" phenomenon came from...sounds like it might be a generational thing :) I'll have to pass your tips along!

Sarahviz said...

We do the "5 minute timer" in the Trenches. Whenever I want the boyz to do something, we set the microwave timer to count down so that when the timer beeps, it means it's time! (bedtime, cleanup, bathtime, etc.)

The Mrs. said...

Brilliant!

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