Pamy's Place: Bedtime And Drama
Writing with love and affection Pamy Blaine tells of the dramas involving getting a child to go to sleep.
Why is it that children dislike going to bed and fight sleep, even as babies? It must be something inherent to all children because every child I have ever put to bed has taken me through the Bedtime and Drama (better known as BAD) scene.
The drama begins with such statements as: “Tell me a story”, “Read me a book”, “Read me another book”, “Just one more”, “I need to go to the bathroom”, “I need a drink”, “I need another drink”, “I need to go to the bathroom”.
Well, of course they need to go to the bathroom again after getting all those drinks! Each plea is often punctuated with “Pleeeeeeease”, “Pretty Pleeeeeease” and facial expressions that would melt the Rock of Gibraltar.
As children get older their BAD strategies become even more complex and manipulative, for example we might hear: “I need to finish my homework”, (scholastic endeavor suddenly becomes the highest of priorities) “I’m drawing a picture just for you”, (Who could send such a caring, creative child to bed?) “Just another five minutes”, (a busy parent will not notice for at least 15 minutes, maybe longer) “101 Dalmatians isn’t over yet”, (as they pause the movie to count all 101 dalmations) and last but not least “But there’s no school tomorrow”, (which in their minds should allow them to stay up all night). It is amazing the tactical plans their little minds come up with that could outwit the best efforts of international intelligence and all just in the attempt to delay the dreaded bedtime.
Grandparents tend to be more lenient than parents are at bedtime and we play the BAD game a little longer because after all, we don’t get to see them and experience this every-night occurrence. For some crazy reason, we look back and sigh wistfully with nostalgia and actually miss this experience, unless, of course the children are visiting for more than a week. Grandparents don’t always have the energy of parents so we have a few BAD strategies of our own. As Red Skelton once said, “Any kid will run an errand for you, if you ask at bedtime.”
The last time I put my grandchildren to bed I left their bedside for what I thought was the last time, only to suddenly hear a loud shrieking voice repeatedly yelling, “Graaaaaammy!” I was jolted from my chair to find that one of them had forgotten their favorite stuffed animal that they just couldn’t possibly sleep without. On top of that, there were monsters in the room, the light was not on, and the words tumbled out, “Grammy, that doll is staring at me!” I quickly made sure the proper stuffed animal was in the bed, the monsters were banished, and the evil doll was stashed in the closet for the night.
It is good to know and remember that sleep will eventually overcome all BAD schemes. Even the most stalwart will finally succumb to pure exhaustion and fall asleep beside the child who is still singing, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” while lying prone making robot-like movements with a jerky reggae beat.
These bedtime and drama strategies continue until at last the child gives up and surrenders to sleep with more reluctance than General Lee at Appomattox. Ah, the beauty of a sleeping child!
There is hope for the future. Bedtime and Drama tactics begin at early childhood and extend to the teen years but gradually, at some point, a switch somewhere in the brain turns off and we suddenly find ourselves looking at a snoring teenaged couch potato but that is another story.
By
Pamela Perry Blaine
©
"Security is not the absence of danger,
but the presence of God"
My Website:
http://www.blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm
e-mail: pamyblaine@blaines.us
"NO ONE IS USELESS IN THIS WORLD
WHO LIGHTENS THE BURDEN OF ANYONE ELSE"
(Charles Dickens)
