It's the Socks, Mama

One night, before tucking BW and JB into bed, I was chatting with them that they needed to go to bed without delay, that their efforts to spend more time with mama at night meant that I couldn't spend time with them in the mornings when they enjoyed it the most.

"Mama needs the same number of hours of sleep every night, regardless of when YOU go to bed. If you go to bed at your regular time and don’t get up for this reason or that, then I can study, go to sleep and get up early enough to share breakfast with you and we can start the day off very pleasantly without any stress or rushing around.

"But if you delay going to bed because you ‘need water’, you feel lonely, you ‘need to get something’ or ‘oh, mama I forgot to tell you about…' I still have to study and that means that I go to bed as late as you stay up past your bedtime, and that means I miss out on the mornings with you. Which is a bummer because I love our morning time together."

"But Mama" JB said, "What if we’re not tired and that’s why we stay up?"

"Well, even if you don't think you are tired, your body really is ready for sleep and it needs a lot more than mama and daddy’s so that you can grow. The energy that you would use to play when you are awake is used instead to grow when you are sleeping, and growing requires LOTS of energy."

"That's right Mama. That's why I wear my socks pulled all-the-way-up!" contributed BW.

"Oh?... What do you mean BW?"

"Well mama, I wear my socks up as high as they'll go because your bones like it best when they are cool. When my socks are pulled up extra high, my feet and legs are hot, so my bones grow extra long to escape the heat and get cooled off. That way, I'll be really tall when I'm a big-jobber!"