I had the same thought myself.  My oldest who is 14, grew 6 inches last year.  He slept a lot.  I also have a daughter who is a ballet dancer.  She dances 4 hours a week.  When she is home, she conserves her energy.  I noticed that she needs a lot of down time.  It’s not laziness.  Some people need to move around a lot.  They don’t like sitting or being still.  Is that a better way to be than to be more phlegmatic?  There is a big difference between being lazy and slothful and being inactive or at rest.

While I don’t disagree that growing children need more sleep, I think perhaps you two are missing the point of Tammy’s post, and that is the evil of sloth.  Tammy doesn’t want her daughter to develop that taste for that.

Shannon, thanks for sharing this website.  Looks like a great visual reminder!  How long have you been using this chart?  (I did have to laugh, however, about the little link on the Doorposts website about “Celebrate Reformation Day!”) 

Thanks also to Nick for the Divine Mercy quotes (what a rich resource!) and to Sarah for the ADD/time management book recommendations (I fit your description too…) 

Something that has been on my mind a lot lately too has been the amount of time, money and energy people (like my husband!) devote to recreational activity (like going to college football games or even watching them, which is just crazily excessive from my perspective.)  Where does this fit into the grand continuum of sloth, gluttony, etc.?

I’m glad you can function just fine on 6 hours of sleep. That must be nice. I really need 8 hours, and I’ve heard that some adults need more than that. When I was only getting 6 hours when my first daughter was a baby, I was getting monthly colds and I my immunity went down so much I got mono and shingles (at age 25). Not everyone is like you.

Re: the article - I agree with the author that we need to teach or kids to do things for themselves and not do everything for them in order to help them develop good habits. As someone who struggles with time management and prioritization, though, I don’t think laziness is always due to a desire for attention or for control. I have strong ADD tendencies, which makes prioritization and time management difficult. Some books that have helped me enormously are “ADD-friendly ways to organize your life” by Judith Kolberg and “Organizing solutions for people with attention deficit disorder” by Susan Pinsky. Both are chock-full of excellent organizing and time-management ideas for people with ADD or just anyone who struggles with time management.

I understand that not everybody is like me.  The woman I spoke of kept extremely irregular hours that were self imposed.  In other words, she went to bed when she felt like it and got up when she felt like it.  That is undisciplined. 

My children try very hard to do the same thing.  While I can not turn them “off” and make them fall asleep at a decent hour, I can, and do, establish a bedtime and a rising time.  If they went to sleep one hour after I said goodnight and got up exactly when I told them to, they would have 10 hours of sleep.  I do not think that their choice to stay up late giggling or reading or playing cards means that I should extend their rising time until they finally feel like getting up.

You’re very lucky that you can function on such little sleep. Opus Dei also demands that its members get no more than 5 or hours of sleep. However, not everyone is the same. Just as some people have different nutritional needs, some have different sleep needs. For example, I have fibromyalgia, migraines, chronic depression and a few other health problems. The symptoms are much easier to handle when I get 8-10 hours of sleep. If I get less than 6, I’m in so much pain, I either have to stay in bed or take narcotic pain killers. Obviously this is not normal, but please be a little sympathetic to those who don’t enjoy your good health and truly do need more sleep.

I appreciate your efforts to make sure your teenagers are not falling into bad sleep cycles. But don’t forget that teens have different circadian rhythms than children and adults. Most teens function best when they go to bed between 11 and 12 and get up between 7 and 9.

I’m not denying that many teens (and adults) are lazy about their chores, homework and other duties. But there’s a difference between wanting and needing more sleep and being slothful while awake. I need a lot of sleep. But when I’m awake, if the kitchen doesn’t get cleaned, then I’ve been lazy. On the other hand, if I’ve been doing housework and looking after my son cheerfully and diligently all day, but I don’t get to the dishes before bedtime, then I haven’t been lazy.

I’m sorry, Rachel.  I definitely have many slothful tendencies myself.  I’m not trying to judge anybody, only trying to point out, in general, that we all find it easy to make excuses for undisciplined (lazy) behavior. 

As for me, my excuses are that I really need/deserve a break.  I work hard all those others hours, so letting to-dos go unchecked so I can surf the internet (like right now) instead of rotating the laundry, finishing the dishes or even going to bed at a decent hour is wholly justified.  Right?

I may nag my kids to get up early, but am I as disciplined in other areas of my life?  Of course not.  And yet, I’m to set an example.  And that, I think, is Tammy’s point.  I do not need to look any farther than the mirror to see sloth in practice.

Thanks for your positive and inspiring comments Polly