For kids Twice means routine

It was the first day of grade II for my six years old daughter and so I gifted her sparkling necklace. She wore it with sparkling smile and said so this means you will give me necklace every year on my first day of the school right? And I remembered I gave her necklace on her first day of grade I as well. I didn’t realize that I was giving her same thing again at the same time with the same reason. Well it was just a necklace and once in a year so I said of course if you perform well. But this incident reminded me of my most pending post which I never completed and finally I am here with the one.

It was a Friday evening when my 5 years old daughter showed up and said “hey mummy today is the movie day so what do you think what shall we watch?”

With surprise I asked “who said that today we are going to watch movie?”

She replied “Today is Friday; we always watch movie on Friday!!! Last Friday we watched Frozen and before that we watched Tangle remember?”

Conversation continued and somehow I convinced her to sleep with two extra bedtime stories but the point is why did this happen?

My mind was still on “We always watch movie on Friday”.

What is always? For the first time I saw that there is a movie coming on Friday so I thought it would be a good change for her and second time her most favorite movie was coming so I just granted it” where is always? It was only twice!!!

For her it was always and for me it was twice only.

Same thing same day same time what was that? Routine isn’t it? Then yes she was right with the words “we always do that”.

I smiled and thought it is so easy to improvise kids’ routine whenever we feel something is just not right. For kids twice means routine. They are such a sweetheart that we just need to work for 2 or max 3 days. If you want to add or edit something in their routine you just need to focus on twice and later it will become habit for them. For good thing or better to say for the things they hate (I mean dislike but here I would say hate as for kids they either love or hate!!!) you may need to work for 1 week consistently but most of the time you can set the things in their routine in just 2 or 3 attempts.

At the same time there is challenge as well, challenge to think twice before granting anything that is not a part of routine.

As I always say 2 makes routine for kids but somehow I too forgot here that watching back to back movie on same day same time is something I don’t want to add in her routine. And as I did the same thing on two consecutive Fridays she felt that it is her new routine.  She was enjoying that so she didn’t even mention it until there was a day not to do the same thing and I did not realize it till the day came.

Here I am sharing few things which I learned from my experiences:

1. Do not repeat the same thing on same day and same time or else it would be a part of their routine.
2. If you really need to do the same thing, do it but make sure it shouldn’t be on the same day and same time. For ex. If you have gone out on last Saturday make sure this week you would go out on Sunday or any other day but not on Saturday so their mind don’t relate it.
3. Don’t introduce anything twice in a month until you really want to make it as a routine.
4. Don’t give the same explanation for the repetition of the similar event or else it will become ritual for them.
5. Do not argue when you make this kind of mistake instead agree with them and say yes that wasn’t the right decision, we should be more careful next time to avoid this kind of confusion. Be real Be friend.

Please feel free to share your similar experiences with us.