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Can't Find Alone-Time for Early Morning Prayer
Dear Holly
I can't seem to get in any real alone time for early morning prayer. When I get up, the little ones wake up, and my nursing child mysteriously senses I'm awake. What can I do?
Labels: 1st P Prayer, 4th P Parent
posted by Holly at 1:00 PM
3 Comments:
When I had a baby, I would wake and feed her while I was praying. As for the other little ones, I set up their rooms to be totally child-proof and had a gate up at the door; I had a selection of safe and fresh toys at arms-reach and I would place a little cup of juice and a few crackers inside their rooms to munch on while Mummy was busy. I also enlisted the help of my husband to help train the children not to interrupt. This all took a good long while, I might add.
I too found my children waking up and getting up when they heard my movements in the early morning. My attempts to wake up earlier and earlier (half hour increments) still resulted in their earlier rising. Out of desparation, I jumped to a ludicrously early hour of 4 a.m. and found the solution: the children were still too tired to get up out of bed when they awoke to the sounds of me moving about and after a while they adjusted to hearing me move about without it signaling their rising. After a while I was able to resume a more "normal" early rising without them stirring from bed. My sense of it is that they were conditioned to get up when Mom got up and this extra early rising reconditioned them. Just an idea - it worked for me. God bless you all.
My girls did the same thing. No matter how early I would get up they would sense it and get up with me. Holly's idea of training them to stay in their room until I come to get them has worked out great. My girls are 4 & 3. They know to play with their toys until I come up to bring them a cup of juice and escort them to the potty. Then they go back to their room to get dressed with the clothes I lay out for them while I shower for the day and get dressed. I can get ready in about 25 minutes so it's not terribly long.
Another thing you might try is to keep your prayer materials beside your bed and pray before you get out of bed in the morning that way the little ones won't be awakened by your moving about the house.
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