“School grades hit by lack of routine”.....what do you think?

[Pearls18]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16354869

I don’t know much about the study but I was brought up in quite a good routine, nothing too rigid a lot of it was a ‘natural’ routine that developed I think rather than my parents being anal about it, but I always had a set (and quite early!) bedtime right up until I was about 15/16 I think, I used to hate this as a child lol but looking back I know it was for my own good- and well yes I did do well in school but that is anecdotal. Now my LO goes to bed at 7 every night, he’s had a bedtime routine from an early age and is a wonderful sleeper (eventually!), it also means DH and I get our evenings to ourselves which I really cherish. Are routines important for you? If not at the baby/toddler stage what about when they are children? Did you have a routine as a child?

 

[robinator]

I had one.

I think children thrive much more under routine; they know what is coming and what to expect and therefore are more secure in their environment. When they have that kind of security in structure, it frees them up emotionally to live their lives (school, friends, sports, etc.)

ETA: I just read the article, and it sort of says that already,

 

[SarahP13]

I had one.

I think children thrive much more under routine; they know what is coming and what to expect and therefore are more secure in their environment. When they have that kind of security in structure, it frees them up emotionally to live their lives (school, friends, sports, etc.)

ETA: I just read the article, and it sort of says that already,

I agree with this. I had a routine growing up and believe it's important for kids, they can handle more when they have an idea of what's happening.

The only thing I would say is that if you are too strict with your routine it totally throws them out when you have to do something different, for example when you go away on holiday. We often stay at friends/relatives houses which is a change of routine for DD but we try to stick to her normal bedtime routine (bath, milk, story etc). Or we may have visitors and she goes to bed late, skipping her bath, but we do milk & story and she's in her own bed. So we change some part of her routine but work at sticking to what we can for her.

I was a nanny for years before having my own and, on the whole, the children with a routine were bright, confident, outgoing kids. However, I had a couple of children whose parents were against routine (bedtime varied from 7-10pm, meals were when the parents were hungry etc) and they were very on edge. They were quite introverted and clingy but would get agitated and almost aggressive quite easily. May have been coincidence but I believe lack of routine had a part to play.

I will just add that there are always exceptions to the rule though! Im not saying you're a bad parent if you don't have a routine. I think we all can accept that different things work for different families.

 

[jojo_b]

Hmm. Well, as a parent and a teacher, I believe that a routine at home is hugely important. However, correlation doesn't imply causation, and there will almost certainly be a whole other set of variables impacting on grades here, other than just routine at home.

 

[Natsku]

I didn't have a routine as a kid. Well meals were generally at the same time but we didn't have bedtimes or anything, they just sent us to bed when we were tired or they got fed up of us being downstairs. Didn't have routines as babies/toddlers either (my mum always laughs at parents who have strict routines)

It didn't have a negative effect on school for me, I always did well, as did one of my brothers (the older three didn't do so well but they had other issues that I think caused that) but has had a negative effect in that I find it really hard to get myself into a routine (and so its hard to get Maria into one too, even though I want to)

I think there's a lot more variables at play obviously, but I think routine is best for most children although some do fine without it.