I never thought my young son was playing me until my mom came to visit for Christmas vacation. My son, the one who woke up ever three to four hours during his first four months of life is a great sleeper. Once he’s down, he’s not getting back up until the sun comes up. On most nights he goes to bed just fine. On other nights he decides it’s time to play to my sympathies to buy and extra 10 minutes of time.
When my mom was here she put my son to bed without a hitch. It was one of the very rare times that neither my husband or I were here to put him to bed because we were at a funeral. I knew we’d be coming home within 15 minutes of his bedtime. There was a slight chance that he would be asleep.
He Makes a Play, He Scores!
When we arrived home I debated on going upstairs or not. I have never not said good night to my boy, so I went up the stairs to give him a hug and a kiss. He immediately started telling me about an itchy bump on his knee. Could I look at? Did it need a bandage? Could I put some stuff on it to make it less itchy?
Of course, I fell for it. I turned on the light. I pulled down the covers and lifted up his pajama bottoms. There was no bump, no redness and no real problem. After I looked at it he said it felt better. I kissed him, sang him a song, tucked him and headed back downstairs.
I told my mom about it and she laughed. “That’s funny, he went to bed for me without a problem. He didn’t say anything about his knee.” That’s when I knew I’d been played. I had to laugh because he does stuff like this quite often. It gets him that extra five or ten minutes of time at the end of the day to be awake and to spend with me. It’s funny because we usually spend the last half hour before his bedtime reading books to each other.
Defensive: Bedtime Checklist
Now before I put him to bed I run through a checklist in my head. On top of the bath, clean pajamas, teeth brushing and book time I make sure all of these things are done before bedtime:
1. Turn on the night light. Check the turtle light with stars to ensure the batteries are working.
2. Fix and straighten the blankets and pillows on the bed.
3. Find his favorite stuffed animals and put them on the pillow.
4. Fill a covered cup with water and put in the fridge so it’s ready for him each night.
5. Ask him to try to go to the bathroom before he goes to bed.
6. Make sure he eats a snack between supper time and before he brushes his teeth. On the few occasions that he forgot, he said he was hungry at bedtime. And yes, I did let him get up and eat half of a sandwich.
7. Find books for both of us to read, but not “Star Wars” books because they give him nightmares about space.
By doing all of these things, I am playing defense, hoping to anticipate anything that may keep him from going to bed on time. And on most nights, they work.