280 Every once in a while

I find out I did something right. The papers and morning talk shows today have stories about children not getting enough sleep, about parents despairing at bed time, children cajoling to stay up later. I just shake my head. We never had a problem getting the children to go to bed and stay there. I think they were freshmen in high school before they stayed up past 9 p.m. As toddlers their bedtime was around 6:30 p.m. and my peers thought I was crazy.

I recall that my daughter used to wake up about midnight and call for me. So I'd go into her room, pat and kiss her, and she'd roll over and go back to sleep. Finally, one night when she was about four years old I told her, "Mommy needs her sleep; let's not do this anymore." And she never did. Obviously, I was in as much need of reassurance in the middle of the night as she was, and when it wasn't working for me anymore, we agreed to stop.

We had a quiet dinner together as a family, sat together on the couch for reading (no TV), bath, individual prayers with both parents, a good-night kiss, and turn out the lights. Only when we had a sitter was there a problem. They were often teen-agers of the "wear them down" variety. I'd always have to remind them that rough play, hide and seek, or snacking just caused wakefulness. I still think so.

That said, how they sleep as kids, makes no difference in their adult life. It is not life altering. We are born with our clocks already ticking. We have one slug-a-bed and one up-and-ready. Our quiet sleepy child turned out to have a thyroid disorder, and our jumping up and down, rocking the crib kid is still hyper and very high energy.

Our bedtime schedule for our children fit our lifestyle, made evenings pleasant, and gave the parents time together. Didn't make a bit of difference to our children!