Perspective

Tonight, all I wanted was for the kids to go. to. bed. already. A was freaking out because that is what she does best at bedtime, and C kept popping out of bed to see what A was freaking out about. I finally got them both into bed and silent, and went out to the deck to sip my wine and ponder the weed infested backyard.

As I sat there, sweating slightly, I remembered summer evenings as a kid, lying wide awake in bed wondering how on earth I was expected to fall asleep when the sun was still up. I lived in New England so there was no air conditioning and on the really hot nights I would lie there sweating, alternating between crawling under the rough cotton sheets because I was afraid the spiders would get me if I wasn't covered up, and tossing them off because come on, it was way to hot to be under a sheet, spiders be damned.

A few minutes into my trip down memory lane C appeared in the door and announced "I can't sleep. The sun is up, I am hot under the covers, but then I take them off and I can't sleep because I need the covers to sleep. What am I supposed to do?" And I was instantly transported back to those sleepless summer nights of my childhood. I empathized, internally. I knew what he was feeling. And then I sent him back to bed.

Sometimes it's good to be the parent.