Bedtime works for me!

So this video is being passed around. People saying it's so funny and true! It's a dad who has made up a song to Pachelbel's Canon in D about how hard it is to put kids to bed. Meh.  I had to turn it off when it got to the "tear up your behinds."

Bedtime works for me. 

My kids are usually up past "bedtime" because I'm too busy with one of them to tell the rest to go bed, because they're waiting for ME to come pray with them (sometimes til they fall asleep without me) or because I'm having too much fun playing with them or reading to them and don't realize how late it's gotten.  On days when I really am ready to be "off" I just tell them "goodnight, I'm going to bed!" and they put themselves to bed.... eventually.  For a while it seemed like I never knew who would be in what bed in the morning. I'd find kids under beds, behind the couch, or all snuggled up in one bed.  Sometimes they still lay in bed next to me and then I move them after they are asleep.  And this week while daddy was out of town I let all 3 girls sleep with me- even though I got conked in the head by a pink cast several times through the night.

I guess I used to feel like the songwriter more when my oldest was only 5 or 6, but then again, they were pretty good about going to sleep even back then. I usually read to them, prayed and gave a blessing, then sat next to them for the short time it took them to fall asleep. Yes, I sat with them while they fell asleep. I also nursed them to sleep as long as I could (one to age 4) or rocked early-weaners to sleep in a rocking chair, even for hours at a time. I kept a certain mindset- Parenting doesn't turn off at night.  And now, the "long" evenings getting some of them to sleep are just distant memories, cherished memories.

Still, my ideal date night was one in which I simply left the house with my man while someone else put them all to sleep. It didn't matter where we went or what we did as long as the kids were asleep when I got home! So I KNOW I was always glad for a respite! But now that my "baby" is 4, and our bedtime routine no longer includes any rocking, I understand how short is the time. So for today, I tuck in my 4yo and 7yo girls and know it won't last much longer.  In case you have to fill in for me some night, for Eden it's first the pink fleece one, then the Papa comforter, then the triangle one, then the Grannie afghan, and on top the biggier, heavier purple afghan which she calls the "scratchy blanket" even though it's just as soft as any other.  Belen's blankets go: green fleece, flannet coverlet, Papa comforter, Grannie afghan, then Great-Grandma's afghan. And don't forget to tuck around their feet.