By Renee Martinez
Regarding sleep issues. It seems like everyone I know with children have some type of sleep issues to deal with. Whether your child won’t go to bed at an acceptable hour or he won’t stay in his own bed, sleep problems in children can cause a host of problems for the parents. This post deals with the impact of sleep problems on the parents. Tomorrow’s post is on sleep problems and boys, more specifically, the known additional issues that can result.
When you lack sleep, you usually lack patience, focus, and of course energy. Here’s what my experience has been, does this sound familiar? Baby may have cried all night or a sick child kept me up. On more than one occasion, I woke up to find myself curled up asleep on the floor of my son’s room. When the little guy did finally get to sleep, it was late enough that if I was still young and crazy, I might still be out with friends. Instead, I crawl back into bed knowing that in only a few hours I would be up to get my other children off to school. On days like this, caffeine is my best friend. I require the little black pick-me-up to function. Driving isn’t an option for fear of creating bigger problems. While napping would be a wonderful solution, it’s just a pipe dream. So I tread onwards with blinders at my sides, eyes heavy and decorated with dark circles. Communication with my spouse is tense and my other children drive me crazy. Everything and everyone annoys me and the idea of slapping any kind of dinner together seems about as daunting as climbing Mt. Everest. Forget about good posture, I can barely stand up, instead I exist dreaming of dreaming. Yeah, I’ve been there.
To make matters worse, since my body is searching for energy, i find myself snacking more on things that aren’t necessarily part of my health-fulfilling lifestyle. Like pretty much anything sweet or fattening. Exercise isn’t an option. I’m too tired for that on days like the one described above. What should I do? Ideally, I should call my mom or a friend to come over and let me take a nap. I guess it’s sometimes difficult to ask for help, but we should ask when we need it. Everyone will benefit. When you’re a mother of boys, everyday is like running a marathon.
About the Author: Renee Martinez consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond.
Renee has dabbled in internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
