Once a year, we have a tradition. This is a rather painful tradition, but it reduces whining considerably. My daughter loves going to bed, which is lovely. She also has a fairly late bedtime, which thankfully results in her sleeping in, so that she gets enough sleep all around. However, in the summer when the older children are still shrieking outside past nine pm, it’s fairly hard to get her to go to bed without feeling a deep sense of injustice about the whole thing.
This is when we stay up. A couple of years ago, my daughter was really interested in what happened after dark in the summer time. She wanted to watch the sun set in the summer and stay outside until that happened. One day when we had nothing much to do the next day, we sat outside on the swings until around 10:30. By that point, she had had enough and came inside, read stories, and went to bed just past 11:00.
Last night was the night we stayed up. This year we watched a movie and watched all of the teenagers roll past on their bikes in the dark. We also snacked a lot. Unfortunately, we did not sleep in much, so today will be a very grouchy day. However, my daughter went to bed feeling vindicated and fulfilled with her late bedtime. Once again, it was just past 11:00.
Of course, my daughter is always a little grouchy the next day and often has a bit of a nap to alleviate the grouchiness. But she is also very proud of her single late, late bedtime and the fact that she stayed up until nearly the middle of the night. It gives her the ability to get through the rest of the earlier summer bedtimes without a lot of whining.
Image courtesy of lenagurnov at stock exchange.