Hello and welcome back to the Simplicity Parenting Diaries with me Kim John Payne, the author of Simplicity Parenting, so glad you could join us again. You know, this week I've been speaking with quite a number of parents about rhythm during the holiday time. Here in the Northern Hemisphere it's holidays, vacation time, and the question of rhythm so often comes up, doesn't it, for all of us.
Like, what do we do with rhythm? How do we keep rhythms going when it's holidays? You know, isn't it supposed to be an out-breath? You know, isn't it, aren't we supposed to let go of rhythm and just let the kids relax a little bit? And the answer to that is a great big yes, isn't it, particularly in the times we're going through now, just to be able to have that, that just, that decompression is so important. However, one of the ways to answer this is to have rhythms be thought of in terms of time zones as opposed to strict times. What I mean by that is that if we have a wake-up time zone as opposed to a wake-up time, it's a very different gesture, right? You know, if we have a school wake-up time be, you know, 6.30 or 7, you know, depending on whatever works for your family.
And then in the holiday time, it can be, okay, we have a wake-up zone between 7.45 and 8.30, you know, for example, give or take, so that by 8.30 or 9 or whatever time zone you set, and it's usually about a 30 minute time zone, then, then yeah, we're up, we're good. But it's, but it's not a hard and fast time, but it is a zone. So, so to extend that example, it might be that you go in and wake the children up around 7.45 or 8 or whatever it is.
And then you just remind them that by 8.45, that's get up time. The times tend to push on a little bit later in vacation, and that's, that's fine, too. But if there's a zone, as opposed to a hard and fast time, what many parents comment on is how that still keeps a shape of the vacation.
It still keeps us moving along. It still has all the benefits that rhythm brings, you know, that that whereby transitions are a little bit easier. Children don't get so anxious and nervous because they, they still know what's coming next.
They still have all that kind of, that feeling that my week has this predictability about it. It still has all that scaffolding that rhythm brings, but with this delicious, lovely, loosening, without letting go. And the parents that have been doing this, particularly during this time where there are so many health and social stresses and strains in the world, have been telling me that they've really appreciated this, this whole idea of time zone, of the flexibility.
Because at the moment, it's, it's just super important to keep the shape of our holiday times, even though it's holidays, right? Because there's so much that could, that could affect our children's anxieties and their nervous systems. And as we know, rhythm and predictability are like soul arnica, like arnica to bumped and bruised nervous systems. And if we can keep that going, then that's the, that's the magic of it.
That's, that's the piece of it that we can be flexible with, yet still hold the form. Some parents have also said that they, in the vacation, they still have weekday rhythm zones and weekend rhythm zones, because of course, many parents are still working. And so the ability to have those two differentiations seem to be very important to many parents.
And it seems to help the kids also understand that in that even though their parent may be working from home, there still is a weekday, there still is a weekday rhythm. And I mentioned this in one previous podcast, that there's a weekday rhythm and a weekend rhythm, and that they can come in zones. Anyway, that's a, that's a small thought for this week.
But it has, it has a rather large import. And anyway, one parent said to me, Kim, you should make a podcast of this, this is really helped us. So I feel like I've discharged my promise that I would do exactly that.
And if you'd like to speak to me personally, don't hesitate to go to our simplicityparenting.com homepage, and you'll see a request a consult with Kim right there on the right hand side of the homepage. Anyway, hope that was helpful this week. Bye bye for now.
