Health and Development

PTO: Parenting Time Off

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

When we were first talking about this article, Patti mentioned that she needed to teach her kids personal space. It seemed like every time her girls needed something, they would physically crawl all over her. While this is cute with babies, twin toddlers coming from all sides feels a bit like quicksand.

Let’s face it. Parenting is a full-time job. There’s no such thing as taking a real break from it. So, when it comes to catching some R and R for a moment, how do you tell your kid?

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Course Notes: Sleep

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

We’re back with another Course Notes mini-series.

I recently took a Continuing Ed course called The Sensory and Sleep Connection. Although we know that sleep is an important component to our general well-being, it is frequently overlooked when it comes to our physical, emotional, and mental health. We’ve all experienced a lack of sleep (remember the newborn days?) and the feeling when we are trying to function without it; but imagine how our kids are doing, especially when they’re still growing. It made me want to investigate the occupation of sleep (yes, sleep is an occupation) and why we all need to get some good shut-eye.

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