Why does bedtime have to take so long? You would think it would be quick since all it involves is getting into bed. Pretty simple, right? Wrong! Oh, so wrong! Bedtime is one of the longest processes of each day with many tired and frustrated parents caught in the thick of it.

For some reason, most children don’t like going to bed. I say most and not all because there are a select few who actually do like going to bed. I’m not sure why and have yet to meet one, but I have heard that they exist and just advise those parents to count their blessings daily and make sure to give those special children an extra portion in the will. After all they totally deserve it as they have spared their parents much heartache at bedtime and have therefore helped Mom and Dad will into old age.

In any case, the majority of kids out there do not like going to bed. It’s so hard for adults to relate to because for most of us, it is the best part of our day! Getting into your cozy bed with a good book or TV show, there’s just nothing like it. When all is quiet in the house and all little people are off in la-la land; it’s just you and Hubby in your world once again, does it really get any better than this?

It seems that children are afraid of missing out on something when they go to sleep. I actually can’t blame the kids who go to bed at 6 o clock sharp every night. They are definitely missing out on things. For starters, they miss seeing a sunset. They’re also may miss out seeing older siblings who arrive home from school late. They almost always miss interacting with Dad after work.  I actually feel sorry for these kids. They have every right not to want to go to bed before their play date has even been picked up from their house!

No matter what time is bedtime, kids seem to be resistant to it, and this is very hard on us parents. We have finally managed to clean up some of the toys with our children so they learn responsibility for cleaning up their mess. We have figured out what to make for dinner, which is never an easy feat. We have made dinner, also not easy, and served it. Let’s not forget about cleaning up dinner (a chore best left for after “the kids are in bed”). Then we manage to get all the kids to get undressed and in the bath. We hope the older ones wash up well, and beg all the kids to please brush at least some of their teeth and not just suck the toothpaste off the toothbrush! Then there’s reading time.  Each child chooses a book and lucky me, I get to read it, again for the 5^th night in a row. Finally it’s time for bed, which should be the easiest and best part of the whole routine, but, guess what?

Jeremy is hungry. Hungry??? How could that be? He just ate 6 hotdogs and 3 ears of corn on the cob and he’s only 3 and half!  Stacey is hungry as well, which makes more sense since she refused to eat anything for dinner. “We have nothing good to eat in this house!” I guess everything’s relative since Jeremy didn’t seem to feel that way. You warned Stacey many times that this is dinner and after that, the kitchen is closed. You feel horrible to deny any of your “hungry “children of a bedtime snack. How can I let my child go to bed starving? So you compromise and bring them cereal in a bag to their beds. Next, they’re thirsty! Well obviously! And so on and so on…this one has a belly ache, and that one is scared because he heard weird noises, I mean it just doesn’t end. You are trying to hold it together as best as you can and praying in between going in to each kid that this will be the last one calling for the night, but at some point, you just can’t do it anymore. That’s the point where the kids know, Mommy means business, and they abort their plan and finally go to sleep.

Yay!!!! It’s shocking and overwhelmingly exciting when you realize that they have finally all dozed off. It’s as if you’ve been liberated, and can’t decide what to do first. Should I eat? Clean up? Relax? Shower? Make calls? Finish up some work? Go to bed early?…….. I mean the options are endless. You are in such a happy state that you almost forget how hard you just worked to get there. And maybe because you just worked so hard it’s that much better. Who knows?

I really wonder why bedtime has to take so long. They say that good things only come through hard work. And while getting our kids to bed is certainly very rewarding to us parents, who now have our free time, there is another “good” part of it. Peeking in on those sleeping little angels who look so innocent and pure is such a moving and pleasurable experience. It almost makes you want wake ‘em up!

Well…almost….!