"Room Time"

A few weeks ago, a new friend of mine told me about "Room Time". I had also heard of it from a parenting book I had read but had completely forgotten about the idea until my friend brought it up. In an ideal world (obviously major emphasis on IDEAL), "Room Time" is where you put the little baby gate up and let your little one play in their room for 30 minutes or so and while they're happily playing on their own and their sweet music is playing in the background, you have that bit of freedom to finish a load of laundry, clean the house, start dinner, etc, etc. And of course the idea is to help them learn independent play and to teach them that they cannot be catered to 100% of the time and that they have boundaries when they play. After my friend told me of her experience and explained how it had impacted their family, I thought, "That sure sounds like a wonderful idea. Let's give it a go!" So the following Monday, I decided to test this new little theory out. I told Kathryn all about "Room Time" and how much fun she was going to have (and how much I was going to get accomplished) and I put our little baby gate up and turned her soft music on and went about my list of things 'To Do'. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday went by and every single day for those 20 minutes of "Room Time", Kathryn stood at the baby gate crying and begging me to let her out. I know if she could actually say these words, she was saying "I H-AAA-T-E room time! Room Time isn't fun mama!! Get me out of here!!" But since parenting is all about consistency, I wasn't giving up. At least not that easily... So Friday rolls around and I put her extra favorite toys in her room and encourage her again with how much FUN it's going to be. YIPPY!!! And so I leave the room and (like every other day) stand a little ways away from the door where she can't see me, to see if she's actually going to play...I mean, TOUCH any of her toys. After about five minutes she STOPS crying! I couldn't believe my consistent parenting skills had already worked! I started doing the little "Who's the Super Mom? I'm the Super Mom!" Dance.. And so I waited a few more minutes before I did my "peek" to see what she was actually playing with and this is what my sweet girl was up to...

Yep, my sweet girl was sound asleep on the floor. That would only happen to my child. She probably figured, "I'll show mama what I think about her 'Room Time'...and her tacky "Super Mom" dance!" Our sweet little girl. She totally has my heart.