So, we are having a little trouble with Dillon. He’s waking up in the middle of the night. “Don’t worry about it,” you say, “a lot of kids do that!”
I don’t have statistically reliable data on this, but my guess is that not as many kids wake up in the middle of the night and then STAY up. The first time it happened was over Christmas break. He has a little reading light next to his bed, and one morning I go in and think – “Hmmm. Looks like he forgot to turn off his reading light last night. Oh well.” I proceed to shut off the light and let him sleep in.
A few days later, same scene, but it is a school day and I wake him. As I am pulling back the covers I discover Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (one of his Christmas presents) which he has completed – he was only about halfway through the night before. So Charles has a serious talk about responsibility and trust and whatever, and D promises not to do it again.
But then he does, and a couple of days later I find the light on in the morning, a book in his bed. And so – Consequences. No more reading light.
Only yesterday, when I go in in the morning and pull back the covers, I find his Nintendo DS under there. So now – More Consequences. He isn’t really allowed to play it during the week anyway, but I take it away for seven days. And we’ll see where it goes again. His Aunt Kate advised him to be sneakier. But really, he’s an unhappy zombie the next day anyway so I just want him to get a decent night’s sleep.
Though I can totally understand the inclination to stay up all night to finish a book as I’ve done that a few times myself. I just hate taking stuff away and am hoping I am not teaching the wrong lesson.
Tags: postaweek2011
I think you have to look at, why is he doing this? Is he not getting a chance to do the things he loves during the day? Is he trying to distract himself from something? Or maybe he’d be awake either way at night and just wants to do something to pass the time. Kids start to naturally go to sleep later and later as they get older, right? I stayed up late a lot when I was a kid. I couldn’t help it, I just wasn’t sleepy. It’s possible that nothing you could do would give him a good night’s sleep.
Kate doesn’t like it when I comment on her family though so I should probably just butt out 😛
Comment away, it doesn’t hurt my feelings! I think it is probably a combination of a lot of those things. And the temptation of waking up and instead of trying to go back to sleep thinking about something way more fun that you could do. Charles and I both get a lot less sleep than the prescribed amount of 8 hours a day, we tend to be night owls (but our jobs don’t allow for sleeping in to make up for it). So maybe it just runs in the family…
The good news is, either it hasn’t been a problem for the last week or two, or he’s gotten a lot more slick at hiding it!