Routine

If you have kids you know how important a routine can be for them.  Parents learn pretty early on the importance of a good bedtime routine to help babies fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night.  Routine the rest of the day becomes just as important.  Children need things to be predictable.   I can remember when K was just a baby, his grandparents would visit and it would upset his daily routine. He would have trouble sleeping for several nights after their visit.   They did nothing wrong, and loved him immeasurably, but he was just throw off enough by having different people in the house holding and feeding him, that it had an effect on his sleep.  Now that the boys are bigger, we still try to keep a daily routine, especially about bedtimes.   Our nights are usually dinner, playtime or a little TV, baths, books,and in bed by 8:00 pm. 

As an adult we tend to want variety.  We have routine habits, but crave some excitement as well.

 Life in the nursing home can be pretty routine for the residents I work with.  For some of them it is so important to keep things the same.  If you sit someone in the wrong spot in the dining room you may have hell to pay!  Our residents with dementia need the routine days.  Just like young children, they need the structure and predictability.  It helps to avoid any behavior issues.  This is easy to say, but at times hard to do.   I often wonder if we were more routine at the nursing home, maybe there would be less behaviors.  If I had more time, and energy, maybe I would conduct a research study on this....