Old Habits, And How They Roll

For a great deal of my childhood, I spent the majority of my Sundays doing homework. It's not that I had so much work due on Mondays (or maybe I did!)--I simply wanted to get a jump on the week, so that each weeknight would be manageable.
 
Perhaps old habits die hard, because I still seem to approach Sundays with the goal of getting that jump. There are, of course, weeks when our Sunday is booked with events from beginning to end, but when it's not, I can't help but think it should be a day for conquering the assignments that will otherwise plague us all week. Seems logical, right?
 
It turns out that what might be an "old habit" for me is not necessarily the natural way kids--well, my kids--roll. Midway through the day, there had been a great deal of sleeping, some video watching, and multiple meals, but not much progress on the work. Consequently, midway through the day, there was a certain amount of nagging and yelling on my part, none of which had accomplished much of anything. Yet, interestingly, by bedtime (I'll spare you the play-by-play of in between), the work was done, the backpacks were stuffed, and we were ready to face the week.
 
I don't know quite what happened. At a certain point, I simply backed off and accepted that things might happen differently than I wanted, which was not an easy thing to do. And in their own ways, in their own time, on their own terms, my kids accomplished what they needed to (or at least most of it). I guess sometimes, in parenting, and in work, it takes realizing that "how I roll" is not always the same as "how they roll." Sometimes it takes a little backing off to give people the space they need to do what they do.
 
Does this mean I am adopting a "hands-off" approach to parenting or working with others or anything else I do? Absolutely not. Today, however, I learned that while some habits may die hard, they don't generally live the same way for two people. So perhaps I'll be a little more careful about forcing my set of habits onto a set of kids who have their own. That is, once I get out of the habit.