If you read any advice about raising kids, it stresses the importance of a child having a solid routine so they can gain comfort with their day. It'll help them sleep more and keep them in a good mood. That's all great and everything, but the reason a routine is truly great is that it makes your life so much easier.
I wouldn't say that I'm a lazy parent, but if I can save some energy and find a shortcut in raising my child with no harm done, I'm going to pursue that option. Routines are the ultimate shortcut as you can program your child to follow orders without having to worry about the energy to actually enforce them.
My child is approaching a year and a half in this world, and at this point, routines are so ingrained in him that he basically takes care of himself.
It helps that I'm an obsessive man of routine. I follow a very simple script for my days, and everything is organized in a certain way for a certain reason. My day always starts the same way, wake up to Spencer making noise in his crib, get up, pee, see if Kimber needs to get up, make up a morning pre-workout drink, get Kimber food, prepare Spencer's breakfast, and get Spencer out of bed to read books while he eats breakfast. Once Stef gets up, I make mud, take the dog for a walk, and workout. Then Stef and I take turn taking showers as we read or play with Spencer, followed by me making a smoothie before getting ready to put him down for his morning nap. The first three hours of my day are only changed by what type of workout I do in the morning. I create a system, and I stick to it.
For my clothes, after I wash something, it goes to the back of the rotation. Underwear goes to the far side of the drawer, shirts go to the far side of the closet, and gym shorts go to the far side of the shelf. That way, they work their way back to the front and get worn again. It ensures I wear everything that I have, and it also helps that all I have to do is find things that kind of match near the front of the rotation which means that I minimize the effort in my decision making process.
As a family, we all have dinner together. After dinner, he knows it's time for him to go to work, and by work, it means he's about to take a dump. Once he's pooped, he gets ready for his bath, and then once he's squeaky clean, he earns some free play time as he winds down. Then, I get some pajamas on him, and he goes hunting for his Mom to brush his teeth. After he's done getting his teeth brushed, he sprints out of the bathroom to say goodnight to the dog, and then he sprints to his bedroom in order to have stories read for him before he has to go to sleep. At this point, the kid practically takes care of himself. I've tried convincing my wife to leave him alone since he's very mature for 17 months, but she says he's still too young.
Routine is good for children considering they are constantly discovering new and dangerous things as they venture out in the world. But even I can admit that routine does have its limits. Although my son is very happy all of the time, and we constantly switch up how we play, it's usually just different ways that we beat each other up in our play fights. This means that I'm not the best at always introducing new things.
It gets even more extreme when I'm left to my own devices. When my wife went out of town for five days, I'm pretty sure I made eight or nine different meals for him. That doesn't sound too bad, but you also have to understand that he eats five meals a day. I found items that worked and went back to that well, because I wasn't going to have the time or energy to go with a backup meal if option one failed. We got in our groove, and it worked for us. At least for a short time.
Luckily, my wife is in charge of his meal options so he gets quite a bit more variety when she is in town. She also has demands for how we spend our days. Most recently, I need to work in some artsy things for him. Since I am not artsy, I figured that artsy things could wait another 2-3 years (he's only a year and a half), but my wife insists that he needs it for his development. It's good that I have her around, because I do get in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it mode," and she comes in with new things to try to find ways to improve what we are already doing. That mix has worked really well for us so far.
Anyway, he'll be 18 (months) soon, so he'll be good to attack the world on his own. That's all thanks to a good routine, with a little variety mixed in.