Bedtime

Bedtime is not my shining moment. It's not the hour of the day that I would submit to the Mother of the Year competition. The academy would laugh and send me on my way. I've always had dreams of putting my kids to bed with a kiss and a hug and a Bible story. Those idealistic notions usually enter my mind in the middle of the morning, when I'm still optimistic. By the time we get to 7-7:30 pm, I'm a scowling, snapping, tired grouch. All I need is some green fur and a unibrow to complete the character. I think it's just that I'm jealous that they all get an 8:00 bed time, and that my day isn't quite over yet. Gemma is still undecided on an overnight routine. Some nights we get up once or twice. Other nights, like last night, grumble, she got up every hour. Mostly it's just our bad habit of sleeping most of the night on the couch together. Me and Gemma, not me and Nate.

Another submission I will not be making to the mom competition is the parking lot decision I made today. I'm not sure that there was a best choice, they all seemed bad. We needed to make a Wal-mart run, I had five of the six kids with me. Pulling into the parking lot, I realized that Caedmon and Jack were asleep. My choices were as follows:

• Leave ten year old Tyler and the two sleeping boys in the running van with the air conditioner on and the doors locked.
• Leave ten year old Tyler and the two sleeping boys in the van with the windows down and the ignition off. Locking the doors would be pointless with the windows down.
• Wake the two boys up and take everyone in the store.
• Leave and shop later.

Some details to consider. It was over 80 degrees and windy today. Tyler had nothing to read/play/watch. We live in a very small town. I have left Tyler in the van with some of the kids before, and they lived.

Looking back, I'm thinking I should have gone with number 4. I opted for number 3. DUH! What was I thinking??!! Caedmon handled himself well. He wasn't happy about being awake, but he sucked it up and shopped like a champ. Jack on the other hand, went in to meltdown mode. The little chest strap on the cart just doesn't seem to hold him in, the boy is a climber. A climber and a screamer. We had the attention of every customer in that store, what a show we put on. Happily, the shopping is done, and I have learned another parenting lesson. Don't ever, ever, ever, wake them up to take them in.

I am ashamed to admit that in the midst of one bad decision, I made another. I caved to the power of a good bribe. I offered candy at the checkout for better behavior. I'm not sure that the behavior was up to par, but I dealt out candy anyway. I give myself a big fat D-.

Now that the house is quiet and they are all heavy eyed in their beds, I think I will do two things.

• Go up and dish out some kisses and snuggles.
• Go to bed myself.