BLOG The Crabbies!

Thanks For Your Patience! AGAIN!!

I am in full swing of school now, having been accepted to the U of M Family Education Licensed Parent Educator Program and Masters in Education. I was definitely overwhelmed for awhile!

My daughters covered my preschool for 2 days while I took a class offered at the U of M by a well known parent educator, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. She is the author of Raising Your Spirited Child, Kids, Parents and Power Struggles and Sleepless in America.

The topic of the class was “Sleepless in America.” I jumped at the chance to get some facts to support my belief that Too-Tired is “The worst Crabbie in the whole universe!”…and I got exactly what I wanted. The book not only provides evidence to support the need for sleep, but also helpful ways to get a child that fights sleep to be on board with it. Many of Mary’s ideas work hand-in-hand with the CrabbieMasters, so I am delighted to have been able to take the class.

Just a couple of things from the book that were new to me and then I will promise to write sooner next time!! (I have been experiencing the Hurry-up Crabbies with school and work!)

The actual number of hours by age was not surprising to me, but I have not known for sure, and never felt real comfortable suggesting that anyone need this much!

      Age & Avg Hours of Sleep Needed

Infants_________0 – 12 months____14-18 hours

Toddlers_______13 – 36 months____13 hours (including nap)

Preschoolers____37 – 60 months____12 hours (including nap)

School-age______6 – 12 years______10-11

Adolescents____13 – 19 years_______9.25

Adults________20+_______________8.25

No wonder the Too-Tired Crabbies are so powerful!

Another fun thing I learned from Mary is something she calls the ‘red zone’ and the ‘green zone’. She uses the famous vinegar and baking soda experiment, coloring the vinegar red with food coloring to illustrate how we feel inside when we are in the red zone/ i.e. Have The Crabbies! My group of preschoolers LOVED IT!! AND if you have the vinegar and put cotton balls in it (we CrabbieMasters call those cotton balls ‘warm fuzzies’), the baking soda doesn’t cause the cup to run over…….that is sooooooo perfect!!

Hope everyone is having a good summer……..The Crabbies love summer also……..lots of opportunities with everyone trying to make the most of every day! Late nights, busy weekends………

AND, I am a prime example; I am running the summer program and taking these classes. I have made up my mind that I want to do fun things with my family on the weekend. What do I end up doing? Waking up in the middle of the night thinking of all I have to do!!

I need to constantly remind myself……..You DECIDE to make it a good day. If something goes wrong, TURN IT AROUND!! Don’t let yourself say “I Can’t!”……Say out loud, “I think I can, I think I can!”

The beauty of working with children is that you can do the above because you LOOK like you are being an example to them, when in reality, it works for adults also. Trust me, I live it!!

Now this blog is becoming therapy for me, but maybe if you are reading this, it will help you validate your own circumstances. First, Too-Tired gets me………from working hard and then not being able to sleep through the night.

Next Can’t-Do……..I am soooo tired that I can’t face all I have on my plate today.

Then it’s Hurry-Up……..well, if I am not a quitter, I better get moving.

And here comes Junk-Food…….wow, those peanut m & m’s really helped me feel like I was deprived of pleasure because I have so many ‘Have To’s’ on my ToDo list.

Oops, here’s Get-Along…….I really do think my husband could see that laundry on the table that needs to be folded…….how pathetic is it that after almost 30 years he can’t notice he could put my clothes away!

Okay, it really does work………holding the mirror up. I have now turned it around…… and, maybe I will have to turn it around in an hour, for myself, or help one of the kids that had soccer til 9 last night turn their day around, or be supportive of one of the parents………

Here’s to a sunny day without The Crabbies!!

I do want to keep up on this better, but I am still not in the swing of fitting school into my routine, so thanks in advance for your patience while I get better at keeping up.

My goal in taking on school is to enjoy it rather than stress out about it.  In the beginning I did do a much better job than in my college days.  I read the material as it was assigned and I studied the notes as I got them, so that I wouldn’t cram for the test.  Great plan until the panic that set in just before the test when I imagined questions on topics that I knew I didn’t have a handle on. I found myself studying but not getting anywhere.

I am not sure how I did on the test, it WAS hard and there WERE questions that I wasn’t sure of, but I can say it was a great experience for me to go through.  I have always been pretty good about understanding that kids get  and shut down as far as what you can expect them to be able to do. BUT after my own experience I had a little bit more empathy - to the point that I told them when I could tell they needed a break and that I knew it because I had the same experience with my class.

AND I also have reaffirmed for myself the need for ME to have a CrabbieMaster attitude………not to let things get to me.

I will do shorter blogs more often. This is the new plan of the day!!

Next topic: Life is too short to learn everything the hard way.

Have a good day!

CM

Your Comments Will Help Us All THANKS!!

Camus or Einstein said:

“Nobody realises how much energy some people expend to be normal.”

I can see how you might behave badly when you are tired.

Did you ever hear of the Crabbies?

Too-Tired is a particularly horrible one.

You can then say to LuLu or to one of your other kids, “Hey, I think the too-tired crabbie is here.”
Tiredness of the keeping-up kind can manifest also in late adolescence or early adulthood. It did that for me. I was an energetic child of six, seven and eight.

05/01/06 @ 23:57

Lesley Scott, Fashiontribes - April 21, 2006

After Running Your Own In-Home Preschool for 25 Years, You Learn a Thing or Two About What Works with Kids. CrabbieMasters.com Helps Frustrated Folks Beat those Sneaky Crabbies that Can Rain on a Kid’s Parade. FASHIONTRIBES BLOG

As anyone who’s spent time in the company of young kids can attest, everything will be going smoothly until the sudden appearance of The Crabbies - irksome & stealthy characters who love to sneak in & ruin a perfectly good time. After working with literally scores of young children, Becky Undlin started CrabbieMasters.com - CrabbieMasters.com as a way of passing along her hard-won wisdom, much to the relief of countless befuddled parents, babysitters, caregivers & other teachers. Using a technique known as externalization, it involves talking to little Ms. Bad Mood in a way that is playful, but helps them to face difficulties, ie. “You’re tired & cranky and you need a nap” becomes the much cooler: “Sweetie, the Too-Tired Crabbies have sneaked up on us…let’s work together to swoosh them out of the door & seal it shut with a wee nap.” Once the blame & shame of tiredness & related feelings are removed, so are the potentially damaging silencing effects of “I’m bad” which now becomes “Oh, Tired-Tired is getting us!”

Learn how to banish the Crabbies for good at CrabbieMasters.com.

http://fashiontribes.com/