Parenting is a trial and error process. You try something out which seems to make logical sense, find out that it has unintended consequences, and then work on something new to try to figure out something that works. There is no cure-all for everything, and something that everyone swears is a necessity might just not work in your world. I had everyone under the sun saying that if you do not swaddle your child, they will never sleep, and you are a monster for not wanting to give them that comfort. We tried it out, realized that my little man needed his freedom, and gave him a sleep sack where his legs could move around and his arms roamed as he saw fit.
In fact, freedom has been something my little man has consistently wanted, and due to the pandemic, he actually got a lot more of than he would have otherwise. At home, he kind of designed his day. If he felt like swimming, we went swimming. If he wanted to go for a walk, that’s what we did. If he just wanted to play with his cars, that worked for us. He’s used to making his own decisions, and he likes doing what he wants (don’t we all?). This may be coming back to bite me at this point.
Since he is used to always having freedom to come and go as he pleases and guide his own day, the transition to daycare could have been smoother. If he wasn’t in the mood for story time, he’d just leave and start playing with trucks. If he wasn’t hungry during snack time, he wouldn’t eat, but he would expect to be fed when he did deem that it was time to eat. And this man never had to be quiet for other’s nap times, so he ran around like a maniac and tried to wake up the other kids so they would play with him. On the first note, he seems to have gotten better, the second one can be hit or miss, but still some improvement has been made, and the final thing was so bad that we ended up just sending him half days, because ultimately, we sent him to daycare to socialize, not to learn how to nap with others.
But my son isn’t a big fan of following rules. He doesn’t want to stand in line. He doesn’t want to sit still, and he doesn’t always want to be quiet. To be fair, none of those things seem all that much fun to do so I definitely understand his feelings. The issue is he’s not the center of the universe, just our universe so he may have to learn to make adjustments to the rest of the world. That’s something that wasn’t a necessity while we were on full lockdown from the world.
I think he might be driving his teachers’ crazy. But he’s a charming little shit, so he gets away with more than he probably should. And really, what’s the worst that can happen if he never learns to follow rules? I mean, yeah, prison could be in his future. I understand that disobeying rules can be bad, but it’s also kind of badass. So, yes, there’s a chance of incarceration, but there’s also a chance that he just becomes the coolest dude on the planet. That seems like a risk worth taking.
To be fair, it’s not like he’s going to listen to me anyway.