Bedtime

Let the battle of wills commence! She wandered among the hallways and rooms looking for her intended targets.  It was the time of the evening that they all dreaded. Dinner had long been eaten, the scant homework was completed, and the remaining noise was the chatter from various electronic devices throughout the house. 

She stopped at one door.

“I am letting you know that it is time for bed.” She said. Her 9-year-old son looked up drearily from his device. Once the words finally reached his brain, his eyes and mouth opened with realization. 

“No! Aw, mom, just a few more minutes, I am in the middle of something important!” he exclaimed.

“Oh really,” she said with a trace of sarcasm in her voice, “and how many more minutes do you need? It is bedtime.” She tapped her watch for emphasis. He looked at her tapping fingers and contemplated his response.

“Ten more minutes?” he pleaded. She looked at her watch, then back to him.

“Ten minutes.” She agreed. He smiled and went back to what he had been watching. Then she set off in search of her next target.

Once at the next room, she poked her head in. Her 6-year-old daughter was sitting on the floor in front of her playhouse.  She was happily playing with figurines in the playhouse singing softly to herself.  She hated to disrupt actual playing, but she had to stand firm.  She knew from past experience that her daughter had inherited her stubbornness to the nth degree.

“I am letting you know that it is time for bed.” She said. Her daughter looked up dreamily from the playhouse, then she frowned.

“Mommy! I’m playing! I don’t want to go to bed!” her daughter exclaimed.

“Sweetie, it is time for bed.” She repeated. “Let’s clean this up and put on your paja—"

“No! I don’t want to go to bed!” Her daughter turned back to the playhouse.

She went with the reasoning approach. “It is important to go to bed, so you can have a full nights sleep before you go to school tomorrow. You don’t want to be tired at school, do you?”

Her daughter paused her play, then said, “No…I am never tired!”

“Never?” she asked.

Her daughter looked back at her and crossed her little arms over her chest. “Never!” She noticed her daughter fighting not to smile at her own silly response. Of course she was tired, proven as she began to stifle a yawn.

She nodded back to her daughter. “OK, but it is still bed—”

“No!” her daughter interrupted.

 She smiled because she knew she hadn’t lost yet, this battle for bedtime, it had only just begun.

“Well, in that case, let me know when you are ready for bed, then I can come read you a story.”

“OK.” Her daughter replied, smiling, then went back to her playhouse.

She slowly went back about the house picking up stray toys along the way and how did that sock get in there? Finally, she retraced her steps back to her son’s room. It was definitely going to be one of those nights. She assessed her strategy and looked again at her watch. Not quite the ten minutes, but close enough.

“So…” she said as she walked in, replacing the toys she had accumulated in the ‘random toy bin’ by the door. Her son looked up. “It has been about ten minutes, if you get ready for bed now, I can read you a story.”

He scrunched up his nose, looked back down at his device and back up again. “Uh, mom?  I don’t think I want a story…so can I—"

“No story?” She would have to bring out the big guns. “OK, but if you were to want a story and got ready for bed now, you would be First.” She made a point to emphasize that last word.

“First?” she heard faintly from the room at the other end of the hall. Her son had also heard his sister’s declaration.

“OK, I can be first!” He tossed his device to the side and jumped from his bed. As he tore off his clothes to change into pajamas, his sister ran into the room. 

“No, I am going to be first!” his sister yelled and turned back around, running off to her room.

She had to place her hand over her mouth to hide the grin and laughter that were threatening to escape. She stepped out into the hallway for safety. Clothes were flying, drawers opening and closing.  She heard their feet thundering around their rooms then out into the hallway and toward the shared bathroom.

“I’m going to brush my teeth!”

“No, I’m going to brush my teeth!”

“I was here first!”

“Hey! Maaaaaaaaaaddiiiiiiiiiiiie! Mom! Maddie isn’t letting me brush my teeth!”

“Am not!”

"Are too!"

“Take turns, please.” She said. 

Silence. Then murmuring. Something was afoot, had they caught on to her scheme? Sounds of brushing and running water followed.

Then one, followed by the other exited the bathroom into the hallway.

“OK, Mom. Maddie is going to come listen to my story then I’ll listen to her story and we’ll go to bed at the same time.” Said her son. What was this? They negotiated a truce? That was...unexpected. She would have to remember that for tomorrow.

“Well then, what will it be tonight?  Wizards, monsters?” She asked.

“Wizards and Monsters!” they cried almost in unison. 

Books were chosen and read one at a time, lands of mystery and strange things were explored. Then one by one, she tucked in her precious children into their beds with a hug and a kiss good night.

Once the lights were out and the doors finally closed, she settled down on the couch next to her reading lamp and pulled out a book. Little did they know, she had planned ahead and started her bedtime attack early tonight. They hadn’t bothered to confirm the time that she had claimed it was, so now they both were, in fact, in bed at bedtime.