Sleepy kid syndrome
October 24th, 2008 by Treena ShapiroWhen our boys were little, another mom complained that after a long day of school and afterschool care, her son would fall asleep on the drive home to Waipahu and she couldn’t wake him up to do homework or anything else.
At the time, my commute was about five minutes, so I didn’t have that problem.
Fast forward six or seven years, and I have another kindergartner and an extra 90 minutes of driving added to our day. A few times a week, my daughter will crash on the way home and sleeps straight through the night.
We can catch up on homework and other things in the morning, but the first thing she says when I pick her up in the afternoon is almost always, “I’m hungry.”
But then she doesn’t stay awake long enough for dinner.
I felt guilty hitting drive-thrus two days in a row to make sure she was fed before she fell asleep, so I decided that I need a new solution. Unfortunately, shortening my day is not an option.
She was thrilled when I brought her dinner to work one night and heated in the microwave before I picked her up, but while I felt better about feeding her string beans instead of french fries, I certainly wasn’t feeling like Mom of the Year. When experts advise that families have dinner together, I’m pretty sure they don’t mean eating together in the car.
Still what options are there? I can’t really cook a fresh meal at the office, we can’t eat out every night and I think my 12-year-old would take issue with having picnics before we head home.
Is it okay to just rethink meal schedules? Does a hearty breakfast, a school lunch supplemented with extra fruit and protein and a snack immediately upon pickup meet a day’s dietary requirements?
I’m sure I’ll figure out how to deal with it... just as soon as I stop reeling from the shock of how my daughter, a one-time night owl, is now so exhausted that some nights, I don’t get to spend any time with her.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I'd keep doing something similar to what you're doing, bringing a healthful snack/meal to ensure she doesn't go to sleep hungry and doesn't eat too much junk food. And I wouldn't feel guilty about it.
If you and your kids are together in your car for as long as you'd spend having dinner, you could substitute that time for dinnertime in terms of family time to spend conversing with each other. As a bonus, there's no TV to distract.
The 90 minutes of driving really cuts into everyone's time for everything else, so if you or your kids can make use of that time, e.g. dinner's already done by the time you get home, they can get to bed earlier, which will help with the sleepy kid syndrome the next day.