Two young people with two very different approaches to bedtime sharing one room… No wonder no one can get to sleep round here
For the past few months, my wife and I haven’t had much time to ourselves. Right now, at the end of a day’s parenting, there’s often so little time left over that watching 35 minutes of a buzzy TV show – traditionally our favourite pastime – seems a bit pointless. Especially since several times this year, we’ve managed to time it right as a show gets cancelled.
Bedtime is the real time-suck. Since our kids now share a room, our project for the last few months has been putting them down at the same time, to consolidate these parallel chores into one. But this process is fraught. At six, our son insists that he should get to stay up later than a two-year-old. The problem is, I agree with him. It’s likely I’ve been radicalised by my own childhood, but I can’t help balking at the unfairness of our regime. Growing up with 10 siblings, staggered bedtimes were holy writ; stratified to a granular degree, and ruthlessly enforced as a tiny sliver of token separation.
Continue reading… Two young people with two very different approaches to bedtime sharing one room… No wonder no one can get to sleep round hereFor the past few months, my wife and I haven’t had much time to ourselves. Right now, at the end of a day’s parenting, there’s often so little time left over that watching 35 minutes of a buzzy TV show – traditionally our favourite pastime – seems a bit pointless. Especially since several times this year, we’ve managed to time it right as a show gets cancelled.Bedtime is the real time-suck. Since our kids now share a room, our project for the last few months has been putting them down at the same time, to consolidate these parallel chores into one. But this process is fraught. At six, our son insists that he should get to stay up later than a two-year-old. The problem is, I agree with him. It’s likely I’ve been radicalised by my own childhood, but I can’t help balking at the unfairness of our regime. Growing up with 10 siblings, staggered bedtimes were holy writ; stratified to a granular degree, and ruthlessly enforced as a tiny sliver of token separation. Continue reading… Family, Parents and parenting, Life and style
