Fran and Maddy used to have a bedtime. Once we got Fran past the ‘I can stay awake all night’ toddler phase, the two of them used to conk out at 7pm every night. It was a short period of bliss. Them we did a few house moves, had a baby, got a bit slack and suddenly we had late night kids who played till they fell asleep where they dropped. That was okay though as they were very happy in their room together. Happy days.
Bene doesn’t need a lot of sleep. Whether there is anything in the recent news report that steroids for early babies causes ADHD or not I have no idea but I do know he has twice as much energy as all the girls – and Fran had a lot at his age.
If I was the mum I used to be, I’d go spare; years if home educating, less routine and general slackness means it rarely bothers me, though I do miss me time. And since his sisters are out all day and often all evening and if he’s going to see them it has to be late, a lazy approach to routine doesn’t seem so much of a big deal. After all, the girls had pretty slack-arsed approach to building a routine and these days they are almost insanely predictable in wanting a good nights sleep. So I think I saved myself a lot of bother trying to impose one.
Here’s to staying up too late watching silly films to grab a bit of family time together; yes, he’s up too late but it’s an evening we can never have again so we grabbed it while it was here.
