There's a secret among parents. No matter how much your child acted up throughout the day, no matter how many temper tantrums they threw or how big of a stink they put up about eating their broccoli, all you have to do is go watch them sleeping. Any trace of parental frustration just melts away when you look at your child when they're peacefully asleep.
But for some families, sleep doesn't come peacefully or easily. Many kids will fight bedtime tooth and nail. In that department, I'm one of the lucky ones. Bedtime is usually quite pleasant in my house. My only regret is that our sweet bedtime ritual is starting to melt into that pre-teen "I'd rather be alone" state of mind.
When my son first moved in with me he was 10-years-old. I was in shock when he confessed that, until then, nobody from his birth family or in previous foster homes had ever read to him. But we read. Every night I'd plop a big floor pillow next to his bed. I'd kneel on the pillow while he curled up under the blankets. We'd trade off chapters or pages depending on the book -- he'd read a little, then I'd read a little. As he grew tired, I would just read to him... letting him be lulled to sleep by the sound of my voice. I credit those nights reading books such as "Island of the Blue Dolphins," "Maniac Magee," and "The White Giraffe" with the best of our early bonding as a family.
Sometimes he'd fall to sleep while I was reading. Other nights he'd be ready to sleep when I closed the book. On rare nights, he'd ask me to rub his back and sing while he fell asleep. I loved those nights. There's nothing more precious than those quiet moments.
He's getting older now and more often than not he refuses my offers to read. He prefers to go up to his room on his own and flip through a magazine before bed. It's a modern-day right of passage I guess. So I let him go, but I quietly miss that together time before bed.
I think that's why I so enjoyed reading about other families' bedtime rituals on Parenting.com. How about you? Is bedtime easy in your house? What bedtime rituals do you have with your kids?
Jake, Age 3
Kalie, Age 5
2 comments:
I wish bedtime was pleasant in our house. One of my kids goes without too much of a fuss. When she does get upset I think it's more in reaction to her older sister who throws an huge fit EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. We've tried everything including tips from the nanny shows and stuff, but it's just awful and takes hours. We try to read one book then tuck them in and give goodnight kisses, but then the nightly fit starts.
We read books, too. A great big stack of books. Usually by the time we've got through four or five my child is ready to sleep.
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