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Can I just vent for a few minutes here. Maybe even get a little sympathy from my fellow moms that can appreciate what I am going through right now with my "little cherubs", and I use the term sarcastically at the moment!
For some mystical magical reason the athlete and the princess, aka my son and daughter, have decided that night-time is now a time to TORTURE, their mother and father from the time they go to bed until the wee hours of the morning.
Our bedtime routine was established many years ago, and up until a few weeks ago worked wonderfully well. Unfortunately there has been a mass breakdown of our system. And, it seems that each night gets progressively worse than the night before. Super!
Now I must preface this by informing you that my little cherubs are 9 and 6 years old.
The night before last started with sending the kids both up to bed to get settled and read for 15 minutes. Then the coach* and I proceeded to go up, tuck them in, say our prayers, and last but not least shut out the light. That is the exact moment that the princess started in...
*husband
"Daddy please stay for a few minutes, I need my panda, can you fix my blankets, Mommy I need a tissue and some water. Why is my nose stuffy, I won't be able to sleep. Can you keep the hall light on and the bathroom light," all this in addition to, the hugely obnoxious Tinkerbell nightlight she has twirling around in circles in her room. "And don't forget to leave the door wide open so I can see all the lights on". And I wonder why the heck my electric bill runs so high. I think I found my answer.
So we finally get her settled in and she falls asleep. That is when the athlete decided it was his turn to take over, because you know, his parents need a little more torture before they can relax for the night. Can you sense the sarcasm in my voice yet?
His new issue at night is SOUNDS! And I'm not talking about loud bothersome sounds, I'm talking about any and every sound that you might possible hear at night when you lay down to bed. The sounds that the average Joe doesn't even notice because they are able to tune out the normal sounds in a household.
It started weeks ago with the tv. When we watch tv at night it is too loud for him to sleep so, being the kind and respectful parents that we are, we turn it down for him. But, that is not low enough, he needs it really low. Now we sit in front of the tv and make sure we don't move, or talk because otherwise we won't hear what the people are saying on tv. Nice right?
You would think that the problem is solved great, good night, but Oh No, not with this boy. Because the tv is quiet now, it enables him to hear other sounds going on around him. In the past week he has had an issue with the neighbors dog, even though the windows are shut, the rocking chair my mother-in-law sits in at night, the sounds of the utterly obnoxious Tinkerbell nightlight that I mentioned above, (this one I don't fault him on though!), and you ready for this one... the sounds of his sister breathing while she is sleeping!!!! Not snoring people, I said breathing!
I gave up after that one and very firmly told him that enough was enough and he would have to work it out. If I heard from him again, that he was going to lose going to his friends house at the end of the week for pizza. Was that too harsh? I don't think so, he promptly went to sleep.
Then the real fun begins. The princess now wakes up on a regular basis between the hours of 12 and 2am. She wants mom, she wants dad, she wants whoever will give her what she wants, which by the way is to get out of her bed and come sleep with us. Lately we have been giving in because we have my mother-in-law living with us and we don't want to wake her in the middle of the night. But the more we allow this, the worse she gets. She now wakes earlier and gets more demanding because she knows she will get her way.
Last night after we got the princess settled for the last time, (we enforced the staying in your own bed rule last night, yay us!!!) The athlete decided he could not sleep in his bed because he was having nightmares too! Are ya kiddin me! We insisted that he stay in his bed. This all played out between the hours of 2 and 4 am. The coach and I layed in bed reminiscing about the times years ago when they had these same issues back when they were a toddler and preschooler! We finally fell asleep soundly, somewhere around 4:30am when I was rudely awakened at 5:15am by my friendly alarm clock. Marvelous!
For some mystical magical reason the athlete and the princess, aka my son and daughter, have decided that night-time is now a time to TORTURE, their mother and father from the time they go to bed until the wee hours of the morning.
Our bedtime routine was established many years ago, and up until a few weeks ago worked wonderfully well. Unfortunately there has been a mass breakdown of our system. And, it seems that each night gets progressively worse than the night before. Super!
Now I must preface this by informing you that my little cherubs are 9 and 6 years old.
The night before last started with sending the kids both up to bed to get settled and read for 15 minutes. Then the coach* and I proceeded to go up, tuck them in, say our prayers, and last but not least shut out the light. That is the exact moment that the princess started in...
*husband
"Daddy please stay for a few minutes, I need my panda, can you fix my blankets, Mommy I need a tissue and some water. Why is my nose stuffy, I won't be able to sleep. Can you keep the hall light on and the bathroom light," all this in addition to, the hugely obnoxious Tinkerbell nightlight she has twirling around in circles in her room. "And don't forget to leave the door wide open so I can see all the lights on". And I wonder why the heck my electric bill runs so high. I think I found my answer.
So we finally get her settled in and she falls asleep. That is when the athlete decided it was his turn to take over, because you know, his parents need a little more torture before they can relax for the night. Can you sense the sarcasm in my voice yet?
His new issue at night is SOUNDS! And I'm not talking about loud bothersome sounds, I'm talking about any and every sound that you might possible hear at night when you lay down to bed. The sounds that the average Joe doesn't even notice because they are able to tune out the normal sounds in a household.
It started weeks ago with the tv. When we watch tv at night it is too loud for him to sleep so, being the kind and respectful parents that we are, we turn it down for him. But, that is not low enough, he needs it really low. Now we sit in front of the tv and make sure we don't move, or talk because otherwise we won't hear what the people are saying on tv. Nice right?
You would think that the problem is solved great, good night, but Oh No, not with this boy. Because the tv is quiet now, it enables him to hear other sounds going on around him. In the past week he has had an issue with the neighbors dog, even though the windows are shut, the rocking chair my mother-in-law sits in at night, the sounds of the utterly obnoxious Tinkerbell nightlight that I mentioned above, (this one I don't fault him on though!), and you ready for this one... the sounds of his sister breathing while she is sleeping!!!! Not snoring people, I said breathing!
I gave up after that one and very firmly told him that enough was enough and he would have to work it out. If I heard from him again, that he was going to lose going to his friends house at the end of the week for pizza. Was that too harsh? I don't think so, he promptly went to sleep.
Then the real fun begins. The princess now wakes up on a regular basis between the hours of 12 and 2am. She wants mom, she wants dad, she wants whoever will give her what she wants, which by the way is to get out of her bed and come sleep with us. Lately we have been giving in because we have my mother-in-law living with us and we don't want to wake her in the middle of the night. But the more we allow this, the worse she gets. She now wakes earlier and gets more demanding because she knows she will get her way.
Last night after we got the princess settled for the last time, (we enforced the staying in your own bed rule last night, yay us!!!) The athlete decided he could not sleep in his bed because he was having nightmares too! Are ya kiddin me! We insisted that he stay in his bed. This all played out between the hours of 2 and 4 am. The coach and I layed in bed reminiscing about the times years ago when they had these same issues back when they were a toddler and preschooler! We finally fell asleep soundly, somewhere around 4:30am when I was rudely awakened at 5:15am by my friendly alarm clock. Marvelous!
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ReplyDeleteoh dear! when it rains it pours. your son's sound issues made me laugh though...really, the sound of her breathing. maybe he was channeling kate gosselin when she told her husband he was breathing to loud.
ReplyDeleteOh SITSta - just when you think you've got the routine down pat the kids come up with a way to pull the carpet out from under your feet. . . good luck
ReplyDelete