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How do people parent without having a partner or self who did their thesis on zeitgebers?!
Unknown parent

@Hypolite Petovan maybe, my brain is illness soup

The word Parent is a verb here, meaning to act in the parental role, which might be the barrier?

in reply to silverwizard

@silverwizard Yes, sorry, I have realized the error of my way which leads to my follow-up question: what the fuck are zeitgebers and how do they relate to parenting?
in reply to Hypolite Petovan

@Hypolite Petovan I figured it was brain soup or English verbing nouns

So Zeitgebers are a thing in psychology deeply linked to sleep, addiction, and hunger. Basically the theory as it works is that the brain produces certain neurotransmitters based on external events (this is pretty easy)

But this means that the best way to make someone hungry is to *do thing things that lead to lunchtime*, or the way to make someone tired is to do thing things that happen before you sleep.

So, my wife did her thesis in zeitgebers during exams and sleep disruption caused by it (with an emphasis on effects of people with Bipolar Disorder, since you know, fields get narrow), and so we thought a lot about them for our kids. We established good rituals before sleep, managed a good bedtime routine, but also made it repeatable.

This meant my sick 2 year old had napped a bunch and didn't want to sleep, so I kept him up an hour, did toothbrushing, gave him a bedtime snack, and gave him lullabies, and he was asleep instantly

in reply to silverwizard

@Hypolite Petovan most parents are aware of the value of bedtime routine, but the real trick is understanding how you can shrink or lengthen the routine, vary the routine while away, and repeat the routine in case of issues