The Journey. It’s Mine.

Growing up, the period between 1 and 4 pm (except on school days) is the official time for a good nap.

As a child, I needed the additional sleep (so I’ve been told time and again) and it’s the hottest time of the day here to be playing outside anyway. Therefore an afternoon nap became a habit that I carried to my adult days.

These days I’d love to take that recharging afternoon nap when I can but instead I mostly use that time to work in the house because it’s the quietest hours of the day: when Raine is taking his nap.

The kids in the neighborhood, if not in school are supposed to be napping as well. (When I was a kid in this neighborhood, no kid is outside the house between such hours. Because they’re taking their naps!)

Supposedly. If only their mothers believed that young children should take afternoon naps.

Well that is really just their problem, BUT it becomes mine when their-kids-not-taking-afternoon-naps prevents my son from taking his regular afternoon naps.

You see, I’m trying to stick to a schedule here that my son should follow. Though mostly flexible, but there is a time for outdoor and indoor plays, time for TV, time for other things and definitely there is time for sleeping.

I think that’s part of disciplining and of being consistent in conducting that discipline.

(Kahit nung nasa LB pa kami at yaya ang kasama ni Raine sa bahay the whole day, natutulog din siya sa hapon. Kasi pinatutulog talaga siya sa hapon. This is one reason why I always preferred the morning schedule when Raine went to nursery school.)

I’m no parenting expert, but I suppose a little bit of everything is not bad. Hindi maghapong tunganga sa TV. Hindi maghapong bilad sa arawan (to the point of tubuan na ng mga kuto). At lalong hindi maghapong gala o pangangapit-bahay.

You see, these days when Raine goes to sleep, (in the afternoon) I clean up the house mess and work, while (at night) I watch my favorite TV channel or video and work some more when I’m not too sleepy myself. In the mornings I usually am in town surfing the net while Raine and his lola do stuff both outdoors (mostly in our yard: Raine playing whatever or biking, his lola gardening, weeding and stuff) and indoors.

Yes, I do believe that the afternoon naps will do Raine good, health-wise.

Imagine if four-year-olds don’t go to sleep ever? Their parents will go crazy.

I’d go crazy. Raine’s afternoon naps recharge me more than they recharge Raine.

Thus, if Raine’s afternoon nap is on the brink of being disrupted because of such kids previously described, I literally shoo them to their homes and wonder why the SAHMs around here can’t make their homes comfortable enough for their kids to hang around in and not just be a place for room and board. (Take note: magaganda naman ang mga bahay nila at oo, may front and back yard din sila!)

Besides, it is too difficult to convince Raine that little kids are supposed to be asleep not just at night but also in the afternoon, when he can hear kids shrieking in our front yard (sometimes the back yard) when they’re not in school.

By the looks of it, a non-school-day-afternoon-quiet-time of the mothers in my neighborhood is not kids-napping-in-their-beds but kids-somewhere-in-their-neighbor’s-house-and-yard while they freely do whatever it is they do with their afternoons.

These kids are just ages 4-8. We’ve been here almost a year now but I’m still shaking my head each time I think about it, each time the scenario unfolds before my very eyes: yung mga bata madilim na ay nasa bakuran pa ng iba at kung di mo pa itaboy pauwi ay di pa magsisi-uwi. Bihira yung time na tinawag sila ng mga nanay nila at pinilit pauwiin.

He he. Grabe na ito. All I wanted to say was: Basta ang anak ko, matutulog sa hapon!

What about you, napapatulog mo pa ba sa hapon ang anak mo? Ako, OO.