For a while there, parenting seemed really easy. Our son, Sean, hit a growth spurt or something that had him sleeping more than 12 hours most nights and a few more at nap time. It was a beautiful thing. For
For a while there, parenting seemed really easy.
Our son, Sean, hit a growth spurt or something that had him sleeping more than 12 hours most nights and a few more at nap time. It was a beautiful thing.
For a few weekends, we all slept in. The house felt like a college dorm, except everyone who slept at our house actually lived there.
Mommy and daddy bounded out of bed full of energy. The three of us were ready to conquer one of life’s mysteries, provided it could be squeezed between breakfast and lunch in the three hours before the boy’s nap time.
You’ve heard of power lunches? This was power playtime.
After such an inordinate amount of shut-eye at night, I figured he would resist the nap with the ferocity of a freedom fighter. But he practically asked to be brought upstairs to bed.
We grew to count on hours to ourselves in the middle of the day. On weekends I could take a nap myself and still have time to futz in the garden and surf online.
When he was a baby, I memorized the locations of creaky floorboards to avoid rousing the light sleeper. Suddenly I got reckless and started to bang around in the kitchen like a sleepwalking chef.
On days when his Rumpelstiltskin-like slumber dragged into its fourth hour, we’d saunter upstairs and call a halt to it. Now it’s clear that the period was a test of our hardiness, and at best we’ve scored an incomplete grade.
We got soft.
Oh, I knew it would end. But I was convinced there would be a gradual shift, a parental signal to stiffen up and get to bed at a decent time.
Kids, however, think transitions are silly. Turns out that it wasn’t just our bleary eyes reading the digital clock upside down. It really did say “6 something” rather than the “9” we had awoken to in the days before.
“I waked up!” he announces each morning in that upbeat toddler tone that makes us forget we were frustrated with him a minute earlier.
So far he seems fine with the shift, so mommy and daddy will have to adapt. All part of the parental job description, I’m sure, if I ever got to review a copy.
We should remind ourselves that family albums aren’t filled with pictures of kids snoring. This leaves more time to go on memorable adventures together.
On the horizon is the end of the nap altogether. Hopefully he’ll give us a heads-up when he’s ready to make that transition. Drawing from the wisdom I’ve gathered, I’ll advise him to sleep on it.
• Mike Moore writes Daddy Talk. Mommy Talk is written by reporters Marci Laehr Tenuta and Janine Anderson. Their parenting columns can be found online at www.journaltimes.com/mom.
