Hello and welcome back to the Simplicity Diaries with me, Kim John Payne. This week I've been thinking about children's sleep. It's come up in a number of conversations with the parents that I speak with each week and particularly the two doorways of sleep.
Now let me explain what I mean by the two doorways of thresholds of sleep. One doorway is that of going to sleep, but the other doorway is that of from sleep coming back into being awake. Now this is particularly for little children when we want to assure them that they can rest easy.
And we have that saying, don't we? You can rest easy. So the first message is all is well, you can sleep. There are lots of things we can do and I want to give you a couple of examples.
When it's sleep time and you've had supper or dinner and you're going to take a child up to or into the bathroom, into their bath time and bed and so on, often we'll leave a space downstairs that's a little bit chaotic, that's a little bit like things are all over the place. As much as is reasonable, start to slowly organize that shared space. Slowly, even if you're not going to do all the dishes, for example, just line them all up, just have them organized.
Even if you can't put away everything in the lounge room, just organize it ready to be put away. Or maybe you can even put it away, but just organize the shared space so you're giving a child a feeling of, and now things are organized. And then, if you can, slowly start moving around the bathroom for bath time and just putting things out so a child is kind of with you.
You take them up into the ready for their bath time, but they don't necessarily have to participate. Often they will, right? But now you're just laying things out, you're getting things ready, and now bath time happens. So the organizing, in a sense, you're creating the vessel first and then you're doing the activity afterwards.
Does that make sense? You create the vessel of organization in the room and that gives that feeling of, I have something to step into. And then it might be, for example, you come back into the room, bath time's done, you set the towel back just where it always goes, the toothbrush just in the cup where it always goes, and you do it slowly, just that beat or two slower. It takes really no extra time on the clock, maybe a few seconds, but there's just that slightly slower movement.
And then back into the bedroom, and maybe, I mean, some parents like to build a little scarecrow of the clothes for the next day. I personally always found that a lot easier than trying to figure out what to get children to wear the next day. So maybe there's a little scarecrow built with the hat on top and then the t-shirt or jumper or sweater next and the pants come underneath that and the socks underneath that.
And so you're organizing, you're organizing, you're putting things to rights. And then the children hop, hop into bed and they have their little nighttime ritual, which might mean a story or appreciations or prayers or whatever that is. And then perhaps a little rub, a little rub on their chests and on their back.
I personally love this Rose Lavender Arum Cream from Uriel Pharmacy. It's Rose Lavender Arum, and it's from Uriel, U-R-I-E-L-E-I, I'm not sure, L, Pharmacy. Because it's beautiful aroma, the rose very settling, the lavender very distributing, and the arum, which is a gold trace element, is gently warming.
You rub this on children's chests and on their shoulders and back and it's beautifully, gently warming. It's not outrageously expensive, don't be put off by the arum, which is gold, in terms of expense. And the massage, the little rub, and it's only just a minute or two, but generally what you're doing is rubbing from the inside to the out.
It's like an excarnating rub. Round and round the chest and then down and out the arms, and round and round the chest and down and out the arms, and round and round the chest and down to the solar plexus. And you might even do the legs round and round on the quadriceps and knees and down.
And so there's this movement out, there's this gesture of excarnation, of moving out into sleep. And then there's the gentle wake-up time. And the wake-up time has got to do, in a sense, with the same little ritual.
So the wake-up time is another message of, all is well, now you can wake up, because the previous message was, all is well, now you can sleep. So to help children who wake up and tend to wake up slowly or grumpily or just don't quite come into themselves now, maybe you come into the room, I personally, both at sleep and at wake-up time, like to light a candle in a safe little candle holder with glass around it so nothing can catch fire, and you're only really using it while you're there anyway. So the candle is lit, there's a little wake-up song, but be careful not to focus on the child too much.
They're too sleepy to be able to focus on them. Likewise, at night time when you're preparing the space for sleep, don't focus on them too much. Just be with them.
Because particularly at wake-up time, if you're focusing too much on a child, it's almost too much for them. They can't cope with it. They'll dive under the covers, they'll be grumpy, they'll, don't look at me, and so on.
So just be moving around the room. A little wake-up song is often helpful. The same one every single morning, there's their wake-up song.
And now there's the little rub, the rose arum cream again, the lavender cream or whatever oil or cream you like. And now it's from the outside in, so round and round the hand and the wrist and then up into the arms and then into the chest and round and round and then up into that and then round and round up on the sternum. And similarly, you can roll the child over, they'll often just roll over and now around their angel wings, you know, around their scapula and then out on the hands and then round and round their wrists and hands and then up into the scapula and then down to the bottom of their ribcage.
So now the movement is from the outside in, it's saying, come on in, welcome, welcome, come in. And that rose lavender arum cream is good for both. Some parents go that one step further and they have some more lively aromas in the morning.
Some of the more lemongrassy or those lavender is kind of mid-range, but they'll have sort of different more wake up aromas. But regardless of what it is, this message of all is well, all is being set to rights and now you can sleep. And then in the morning time, all is well and now you can wake.
In that way, you're creating the vessel for a child both to sleep and release and the vessel to come back and come into their waking day. All is well. I sure hope that is helpful.
Okay, bye-bye for now.
