Children often fear the unknown.
Whether it’s a new vegetable on their dinner plate or a new teacher at school, change can be challenging! By using routines, you can help your child get essential things done while maintaining a sense of comfort and familiarity.
3 Benefits of Using Daily Routines With Your Children
Here are just three reasons why you may want to consider adding a routine to your family’s daily activities!
Routines Can Help Children Develop Behavior Regulation
When children face unexpected setbacks or frustrations, emotions can run rampant. If you’ve ever watched your child meltdown at the grocery store after saying no to a chocolate bar, you’ve experienced this reality firsthand. You can help children regulate their emotions and behaviors is to teaching them about managing expectations.
Routines are a great way to do this. If your child knows that ‘lights out’ come after storytime, they can feel prepared instead of slighted when bedtime finally comes. Recent research supports this idea—in the Journal of Family Psychology, researchers found routines to support emotional and behavioral regulation, as well as overall resiliency.
Routines Eliminate Power Struggles
Tired of feeling like the bad guy? (You’re not). Routines can help you eliminate constant power struggles between you and your children. Instead of feeling bossed around, children can learn certain activities are just what they do at certain times of the day.
Just woke up? It’s time to brush your teeth. Is Dinner over? Time for free play, then pajamas. When you stay consistent, the routine becomes the one in charge—not you.
Routines Can Help Build Family Relationships
Bonding time is so important—for both parents and children. Having time to chat through what happened at school or soccer practice can bring your family closer together. Routines can be a great way to build more family bonding time into your schedules.
This can be as simple as reading a story together before bedtime and discussing everyone’s favorite parts. If you have more than one, it could also be scheduling ten-minute one-on-one sessions with each child before bedtime.
Start Building Your Morning and Evening Routines + Free Printable
If you’d like to start getting some of the benefits of routines but aren’t sure where to start, have no fear! The Mom Kind has teamed up with Quicken Loans to bring you these free printable morning and evening routine cards.
These cards were made specifically for busy single mothers but are perfect for any family who wants more consistency in their days. These cards are especially great if you have a visual learner in your family! Download your routine cards below
