It’s hard to be strict about bedtime in summer. Ok, I’m not good at being strict about bedtime any time, but I did find that putting Kaitlyn to bed early does result in a more pleasant evening for me and a more pleasant child the next morning before school.
But ever since she got the chicken pox and her school year came to an abrupt end, there’s been no real reason to get up before 9. She’s had lots of reasons to stay up late: barbecues that go late, rides home from the zoo during which she naps making a reasonable bedtime impossible. I haven’t pushed it. I haven’t been able to sleep lately (I don’t know why). So I don’t really want to have her getting up at 7 or 7:30 while I’m still trying to get some rest.
Tonight after cleaning up her room and reading two books, I turned out the light and told her goodnight. Then she started in with her I just want to ask you one question routine. She is obsessed with asking what we’re going to do at morning. And if she doesn’t like your answer… for instance if you answer an honest I don’t know… she gets mad. So tonight she started in with that. I told her we have French lessons; we actually have to get up. Apparently that isn’t the answer she was looking for because she kept asking me over and over until I got so mad I had to just turn around and leave her room before I exploded at her.
Just when I was starting to think that just maybe she’d fallen asleep, she came out of her room and said Mommy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Seriously. That’s what she said. How can you stay mad at that?
I’ll tell you how. Five minutes later she was back out of her room asking Bill what we going to do at morning?”
A calendar with stuff scribbled in on various days may help this penchant for planning Kaitlyn is developing. After all, you want to be sure to cram lots of activities into your Europe-based life, so she may be the catalyst to insure that happens.