A Bedtime Story

I could tell lots of parenting stories. Here are a couple to make you laugh.

Once upon a time, a mother told her 10 children it was bedtime. Each of them quickly prepared for bed and waited patiently in their rooms till their mother came. One by one she talked with them, hearing about the older ones’ days, and telling the little ones a story. One by one she gave them a hug and said, “I love you” and got the same in return. Then they all fell asleep and slept peacefully through the night, and so did their happy mother. The End.

What a lovely parenting bedtime story! Definitely a fairy tale. No such thing has ever happened in my house. Has it happened in yours?

Bedtime here feels more like a circus…

Ladies and Gentlemen! For your entertainment, and great amusement, I present The Family Bedtime Circus!! Cue the circus music-

For our first feat, we have a one year old attempting to chase down her 3 older brothers with their toothbrushes and successfully deliver them, without getting toothpaste on any clothes, beds, or floors, all while the boys are busy racing, playing cars, throwing things down the stairs, swinging on their hammock swings, or whatever their chosen activities. Can she do it?

Amazing trick!

Now she’ll attempt to brush her own teeth while swinging on her own hammock swing. Not sure how clean those teeth got, folks, but it sure is exciting to watch!

Seriously, though, it does feel like a major parenting accomplishment to get these kiddos to bed every night.

After the toothbrushes are used and returned, there are the flossers, the trips to the bathroom, the pajamas… Some of the kids are good about taking care of it themselves, but there are always a few that I have to go back to again and again to remind them that it’s time for bed, not for toys and games.

This is the part of bedtime, and this parenting story, that gets the most interruptions and mishaps. Even though they want to play, they are tired, so it’s easy for them to crash into walls, or trip on left-out toys, or bump into each other, or smash fingers in doors, or get upset about any little thing and end up crying. Sigh! It’s also when I’m getting tired, and sometimes their little disasters turn into full uproars in Mom’s frustration. ☹Then we take a few minutes to chill out and feel better, and get back to bedtime. Luckily these are not too frequent, and we only have to deal with one or two of them on most nights. A night with no mishaps is a great bedtime!

There are sweet moments…

#7 is the easiest to get to bed, and the quickest to go to sleep, so I usually take him first. I do feel the need to connect with each of my kids before I go to bed, so I walk him to bed and stay close while he prays, and I listen to what he wants to tell me. This is a sweet parenting moment. And then the younger kids wander in and make a lot of noise and climb up on his bunkbed. So I say goodnight and take them away.

Next I take the 3 littles to bed. Baby lies in my lap with the 4 year old next to me on his bed, and our 6 year old on the top bunk. Baby is pretty easy to keep in place, but the other two are hard to get to bed and to keep there. Even after they’re “in bed” we usually have things like swinging stuffed animals down from the top bunk, peeking a head up from the bottom bunk, and several rolls and summersaults before they settle down for bedtime stories. I just tell them the ones from my brain files because my hands are too full for a book. And I have to be honest, I usually dose off when they finally hold still…

Half way through this parenting story: 4 down, 6 to go!

Our two middle kids are the hardest to keep in bed at this point. They are old enough that they want to stay up later like the big kids, but young enough that they are still tired soon after the little ones go to sleep. They usually get walked to their beds and have a few minutes to talk before I go to find someone else. Next thing I know they’ve found me again for another hug or one more thing to say. And they usually pop up 3 or 4 times before I go to sleep. Ha ha.

The oldest 4, the true teenagers, get a different approach. Instead of sending them to bed, I just check in and hope for a hug. Sometimes they have a lot to say, sometimes very little. Sometimes they aren’t even home by the time I feel like I can’t handle any more awake time that day, so I text them goodnight. Sometimes they’ll fall asleep before I can get to them. Then it’s just a whispered goodnight.

If I’m lucky enough to catch my hubby awake, I’ll hold his hands for a few minutes before I go to bed. I’m not sure why, but sometimes giving affection to my kids can wear me out, while holding hands with my Honey seems to fill me up again.

When all is said and done, lying down on my bed feels soo good. 

When it’s my turn to relax, my mind goes over bedtime – did I remember everyone? Sometimes I do realized I’ve missed someone and jump back up to catch them, but not too often. My mind goes over my day, both the frustrations and the sweet moments coming back to me, along with all the parenting successes and failures. The kids smiles, the silly things they said, the funny things they did, and their random spontaneous expressions of love are what I hold on to as I fall asleep.

And that’s my bedtime parenting story.

Thanks for reading my blog. If you liked it, share it, and go enjoy your adventure.

For more about our big family, read my Bring the Party post.