When my kids were babies and young children, I was very strict about bedtime. It didn’t matter what was on TV, whether it was easter or xmas, whether we had visitors …. bedtime was immovable. Of course, it moved to suit the age of the child, but still, 8.30pm was this magical time, when all children stopped watching tellie and went to bed.
Now this strict adherence to bedtime had nothing to do with their health and wellbeing. I didn’t feel that they needed a certain volume of sleep to develop their brains, or that muscle growth needed a certain amount of rest time ……. it was really quite simple.
If they didn’t go to bed ……I would go insane.
Bedtime was instigated for the benefit of MY health and wellbeing. When you are mum and wife all day, you really really need some down time, some time when you can let the various responsibilities and restraints go, and just revel in the serenity. AAAhhhhhh how’s the serenity.
But, a situation has developed, that is a serious threat to my sanity. My daughter is 18, and my son is 12. I can still insist on a bedtime for the boy (at least on school nights), but miss18 is an adult and a uni student. She can have alcohol whenever she wants, can watch whatever she wants on tellie, and she doesn’t have to go to bed when I say so. My peaceful evenings are now loudly interrupted by her talking at her usual loud volume, but more the point, I no longer have the wind down time before bed, that I used to. This is taking some adapting to, and I am not sure how to solve it.
