I have to get something off my chest. I am so sick of people talking about sleep regressions like they actually exist. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe children have worse periods of sleep, but is it just me or does it seem like every moth of a baby's life there is a 'sleep regression'?
The 10 month, 11 month, 12 month sleep regression....OK come on. Can we just call it like it is? Sometimes kids are jerks and they refuse to sleep! We don't need to label absolutely everything. I get that calling it a 'sleep regression' is a comforting feeling because it means it's normal; Other people have gone through it too, oh what a relief! But when literally every single month of a child's life has a period of sleep regression, I think we need to come to grips with reality.
I even did a little research before doing this blog and one of the most reputable sites was confused about where the legitimate sleep regressions happened. Just check out this screen grab from their site:
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| 8..no wait, 9....um scratch that...10 month sleep regression! |
Are you kidding me!? Even the sites claiming to help with these so called sleep regressions can't determine when they happen? Ugh!
OK... real talk for a minute: I get that every child develops as a different rate, and realistically the reason they have periods of troubled sleep is because their little brains are developing so rapidly. And this difference in development is why you can google any month of a child's life with the words 'sleep regression' after it and hundreds of articles will come up. But this is exactly my point. Can we drop the 'my kid is in the 6 month sleep regression' talk and instead just say 'my kid is sleeping like shit this month!'.
In reality it's not a big deal. I guess if it makes you feel better to use a term like 'sleep regression' then all the power to ya. It's just a pet peeve of mine that makes me cringe every time I see it! So what do you hear parents talk about or see posted on mom groups that you can't handle? Tell me in the comments below!
