Thursday 29 April 2021

Delving Into Routine Comforts With TEMPUR®


Hands up anyone out there who has a small human who doesn't really "do" sleep...


*raises hand*


Hands up anyone out there who has had a really crazy time over the past few months trying to keep their said little human's routine and sleep pattern as unaffected by the wildness within the world as possible...


*raises hand*


It's really not an easy task - raising little people during the midst of a pandemic - and especially when your smallest little person thrives from routine, from "their normality" and has a real need to have a fairly set, rigid routine - everything about lockdown and "the germ" (as we described it to her) threatened to turn around all the progress she has made over the last two years at nursery and potentially really mess with her state of mind.


We still have no idea how she will react once we attempt to remove this new, lockdown "normal" that she has adapted to and try to change up all of her routines again once school starts, but all we can do is try - I mean if I don't know what "normal" looks like anymore, how on earth does a five-year-old stand a chance.


But - we will try.


So, by now, you are aware that I have an almost five-year-old (how did that happen) who likes her routines, who adores knowing what she is doing and when she is going to be doing it and who totally loved being able to see her friends and teachers every single day, so when that was snatched away from her...well, lets just say it took a while for her to adjust.


And for us, we found that part of that adjustment involved us having to substitute her "now it's time to walk to school" portion of the day with carrying out the same three-mile walk each and every morning - come rain, hail or shine - at almost the same time of the day too.


It really helped set the pace for the remainder of our day.

 It helped to keep her settled, busy and as calm as possible, and, if it didn't happen, well - we found out the hard way - that our days, and indeed our nights too, simply fell into a little bit of chaos.


For Willow, having some sort of structure really helps settle her mind so that she isn't simply left dangling, wondering where she will be or what she will be doing at any point in the day, and so I kept this in mind all of the time.

I planned out the things we would be doing, the learning activities we would thread into the day, the places we were able to visit and I used a wall-mounted visual timetable to help her "see" the things we had on our daily task list...





And we did this every single day.


Her little visual timetable cards showed exactly what was coming up in what order so that she knew that after PE it would be snack time and that number work would follow, with a little painting thrown in after lunch.

She would post the cards away into a little box once each task had been completed too, giving a little sense of accomplishment.


I also tried to weave the things she showed interest in - either the TV shows she enjoyed or the books she showed a love for - into the learning activities we did too - anything to try and keep her engaged and happy, and to keep her very busy mind as active as she needs it to be...



Now for my teenage son, this approach really didn't work at all - he found the whole situation stressful and he really felt the pressure, so with him, after trying the full-on-workload approach I backed right off, I approached his school and together we came to a more manageable agreement for him - one where he was able to focus more on the subjects he enjoyed and wanted to focus his time on helping him feel happier and in turn he totally refocused and shifted his attention back to his schoolwork a little more.


Anything to ensure his mental well-being was as healthy and as on form as it could be during a time when nothing else seemed healthy or sane to him at all.


Now, we have established that my daughter is a routine seeker and that she isn't really a sleeper (oh how I know this) but by us always having, and always sticking to a bedtime routine it does ease the pressure at bedtime, helping her settle and relax rather than everything being up in the air, chaotic and anything but restful.


I certainly do have a little lady built on routine, and so when I was approached by TEMPUR® and introduced to their "routine comforts" campaign it felt like something which fit right in with our lives already.


Now, who is TEMPUR® and what do they do?


I've certainly heard the name before and it immediately made me think of sleep, of my bed, of comfort, of rest (oh rest, how I miss you!) and of finally owning an amazing sleep-worthy mattress, and that is exactly who they are.

First established by NASA in the 1970s in a bid to help cushion and support astronauts during their journeys into space, the material is indeed used now to make amazingly comfortable mattresses, beds and pillows to ensure the best nights rest possible.


I mean, using the only materials accredited by the Space Foundation, well it must be comfortable, right...

(and I - very stupidly actually when I think of the size of my doll-like, tiny, less-than-a-double bed - checked out their mattress size guide - and that Super King Size bed sounds like an absolute blooming dream!)


And so for TEMPUR®  to want to focus on the importance of a good nights sleep routine as a benefit for both the health of adults and children, well it seems amazing to me - especially seeing as I am a Mum who hasn't had enough sleep for about five years...


I think we really need a little TEMPUR® in our lives...


* #AD - this post is in conjunction with TEMPUR® but all thoughts are my own

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