No Kid Me vs. Kid Me

Having kids changes you.

Cliché, I know. But it’s true.

Last night LM would not go to bed.

Would. Not. Go. To. Bed.

It’s incredibly frustrating. Not the first time she’s done this and it’s frustrating each time. It doesn’t matter how many times she’s put back in bed like a spring she pops right out. She tried slipping into her brother’s room for a time. Which would have worked but the two of them together can’t be quiet to save their lives. Even when she was escorted back to her room she still kept getting up. After a while, since The Boy kept having a talking to each time we found her there, he started denying entrance. Then she was left to wander around her room. Turn her light on and off. And, of course, make her noise.

Finally I’d had enough of laying on the floor outside her bedroom. I was tired. So I brought her into my bed and put her to bed with me. Whenever I do this I usually get a head shake from David.

Growing up my parents slept in a water bed. To this day I do see how it is humanly possible to sleep in one but they did somehow. Their bed frame had about a four inch padded rail all the way around it. In the night if any of us had a bad dream or couldn’t sleep or whatever we’d go find my parents in their water bed. Ok, let’s be real, we’d go find our mother, who was farthest from the door. She would mumble something at us and let us lay down next to her on that little rail. Usually the impossibility of being comfortable on a four inch padded rail outweighed whatever brought us in there in the first place and we would make our way back to our room. After having this experience a time or two I was convinced: no kids in my bed. It’s all I had known and it works. And I proclaimed it often when I was young and single and free. No kids in bed with me!

Then I had kids.

I had kids and finally learned what sleep deprivation really was. What “survival mode” really felt like. I found how much much easier it is to put them in bed with us then they fall asleep then I can take them back to bed. I loose much less sleep this way. And sleep is important! I seem to be the only one convinced of this but I’m sticking to it.

Now, a few disclaimers. #1 It’s usually the youngest that this applies to. When the big kids come in, always to me of course, I put a pillow next to my bed tell them to lay down and I hold their hand until they fall asleep. And #2 This doesn’t happen every night. It couldn’t. When it comes to sleeping with any one of my kids LM would definitely get picked last. She is not above stealing pillows, sleeping sideways, treating you like a piece of meat and she the meat tenderizer (although you don’t feel tender after), sitting up and bending over taking all the covers with you and so much more.

So after I had gotten kicked in the head one to many times I finally took her back to bed. And she stayed there. See? Problem solved.

Having kids changes you.