Summer nights; blissful evenings filled with summer sunshine with nothing better to do than sit in the garden, soaking up the rays and relaxing with a chilled glass of white wine and a nice book. Does that sound familiar? No? No, not here either. Summer nights mean something very different in this house.
In fact, I am getting to the point where I quite dislike summer nights and I am starting to long for the cold, dark winter nights and the calm that they bring. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the summer, I do love the sunshine (what we have of it anyway) and in theory I do like the longer, lighter evenings, but in all of my years of being a parent, it seems as though the second that the big hand on the clock goes back an hour in March, my once calm, contented, good sleeping children turn into insomniac monsters. If you think that I’m joking, sadly I am not.
To a point, I understand and can be a sympathetic mum. Yes, the lighter nights make it seem harder to settle and it often means that the older kids are out longer and can be seen and heard. But the thing that gets me and makes me a very unsympathetic mum is that my children are still tired. Possibly more tired as the longer, lighter days often mean that they do more, stay up later. Does that make a difference? No it does not.
I have tried black out blinds and linings and I know that they are great and work really well for some people, but not for my children. They just seem to sense that it is light outside and for some reason that is enough to stop them from going to sleep.
We have a nice wind down before bed; some TV time, maybe a game, supper and a drink. They always read or are read to before bed and everything is calm and lovely and then the minute you mention the Sleep word it all goes pear-shaped. It is not unusual to hear the following in our house between the hours of 7 and 9 in the evening;
“Please stop gyrating and get into bed.”
“I told you not to drink lying down, go and get a towel.”
“You cannot sleep with your head hanging off the bed/standing up/doing a handstand.”
“Yes I know those children are still outside playing, but it is your bedtime not theirs.”
“Yes it is light, but no it is not the morning.”
“Please lie in your bed and not on top of your brother.”
“You may not be able to sleep, but kicking me in the head is not going to help.”
“Try lying down and closing your eyes, that will help.”
In response to the never ending “I can’t sleep!” “YOU HAVEN’T TRIED!”
“I DON’T CARE JUST GO TO SLEEP!!!” (always me)
The thing is that I do very much love my children and I love spending time with them, but these long and very drawn out evenings are a problem of two levels. Firstly, like me all of my children do actually need sleep and the long term effect of these later nights is a very grumpy family of over tired people. Secondly, I quite like my hour or two of down time in the evening. It is my time, my bit of me-time where I can chat to my husband without being interrupted, a chance to drink a hot cup of tea or something stronger, a little bit of blogging time or time to catch up with some work or just a time to sit and veg out in front of the television and chill out.
Still the worst is over with now at least and I am starting to look forward to the winter evenings and that lovely time when the nights draw in and I hope that normal bedtime service will be resumed .. until next Spring at least anyway.
It’s great to spend time with your kids , precious moments