The Struggle

"Why doesn't N read the Quran?"

I've been skimping on sleep lately, as I have to finish writing up two articles with a deadline, and am studying for the Chain of Command exam I am retaking, so I was horrendously groggy this morning after Fajr.

I had the kids take a Learning Style assessment from the book 'Discover Your Child's Learning Style', and for the question,

At what time of the day are you most tired , all the kids answered After Fajr.

This is no surprise to me, as I 've seen their grogginess, and I can attribute it to lack of sleep. Since the days are longer, and they all pray Fajr and Isha', they only have about 7 hours of sleep each night. We have them take napes nowadays because of that, but their naps only add about 2 hours to their total horus of sleep, which I believe is still not enough for children their age.

I asked N when she wants to read her Quran and do her surah memorization.

"After Fajr," she replied, with regards to the Quran.

"Are you sure?" I asked, recalling that she had answered 'After fajr' as her most unenergetic time of the day.

She nodded.

So for her, how is my complete responsibility now with regards to Quran, we settled on post Fajr and post Zuhr for her quran and memorization respectively. Hubby handles the other two, alhamdulillah.

Yesterday, she was so groggy, and wasn't cooperating much when reading her quran. Since I myself have been lacking sleep too, my patience wasn't exactly fully recharged, and I snapped. Thinking it wise to change the time and forgo all the snapping and misery in the early mornings, I told her,

"We have to change the time. You're not strong enough to fight the grogginess. If we keep this up, I'm just going to be angry and you're going to be miserable."

So, we are now moving it to after Asr. If we for some reason (which are many, such as... anything to do with Baby Z) can't do it after Asr, we will do it after Maghrib.

It has really been quite a struggle for both N and me. I need more practice in patience. I had 11 years, and I'm not quite sure if my patience level have increased in all those years. Patience with hubby, maybe. Patience with kids, I'm not so sure.