It?s easy to get stuck in a rut. Maybe you?ve been cooking the same five dinners on repeat (mealtime rut), or you spend your time at the gym listlessly pedalling on a stationary bicycle (workout rut). These patterns of behaviour are somewhat life sucking, but they?re also comfortable, so they can be hard to change.
Add kids to the mix, and it?s even more difficult to hit the reset button and break out of unhealthy or unproductive routines. Kids, after all, are creatures of habit, and they find it unsettling when there?s a shift in the daily program. And sometimes parents benefit from autoplay too. But there?s hope. Here are four common parenting ruts and how to get out of them.
1. Screen time rut
Any parent who?s ever set their kid up on Disney+ as an electronic babysitter or used a smartphone or tablet to occupy kids at a restaurant knows how easy it is to fall into a screen time rut.
The first time I plopped my son, then seven, down with an iPad open to YouTube, I did so to keep him busy while I cleaned up after dinner. I was thrilled when he navigated to another music video and hit play?it meant I could respond to a few emails. At the time, I thought it would be an easy way to occasionally keep him and his big sister occupied.
I was shocked how quickly it became an after-dinner expectation, and not just for my son. I came to rely on technology to carve out time for self-care.
?In most families that have established screen time routines, we use them to get things done or...