Bedtime Entertainment?
Last night we sent the girls to bed as usual. They've been staying up later and it was now past 10pm. We could hear talking and giggling. Honeybear walked down to the room shared by 3 girls and admonished them to quiet down and go to sleep. A few minutes later we heard the giggles and the talking again. Honeybear sent me down to the dark room to investigate.
I discovered three girls in bed with 4 or 5 stuffed animals. That wouldn't be a problem except that the girls were enacting some type of storytelling with the stuff animals.
As I held out my hand to take the stuffed animals, I said in my sternest, gruffest voice "and don't think I didn't do the same thing when I was kid and don't think your Nana didn't do what I'm doing now." They giggled. I looked at them and said "remind me to tell you about the chick a dee stories". More giggles.
Then in a more normal voice, I reminded them that it was very late and they really needed to be settling down and that I had no problem if they want to go bed earlier and tell stories but if you go to bed this late, you can't have stories.
I wish I could remember the chick-a-dee stories. What I do remember is my parents putting us to bed way too early and not being tired enough to sleep and my little sister being a story teller and she had this stuffed thing we called chick-a-dee. I have vague memories of him wearing a blue coat. He told wonderfully funny stories and though I don't really think my mother ever took chick-a-dee away from us I do remember her coming in and telling us to be quiet and go to sleep.
I hope my children do go to bed early tonight so that they can have some time to be creative and make up stories. I hope this is a family tradition that gets passed down to my grandchildren and to my great grandchildren.
I discovered three girls in bed with 4 or 5 stuffed animals. That wouldn't be a problem except that the girls were enacting some type of storytelling with the stuff animals.
As I held out my hand to take the stuffed animals, I said in my sternest, gruffest voice "and don't think I didn't do the same thing when I was kid and don't think your Nana didn't do what I'm doing now." They giggled. I looked at them and said "remind me to tell you about the chick a dee stories". More giggles.
Then in a more normal voice, I reminded them that it was very late and they really needed to be settling down and that I had no problem if they want to go bed earlier and tell stories but if you go to bed this late, you can't have stories.
I wish I could remember the chick-a-dee stories. What I do remember is my parents putting us to bed way too early and not being tired enough to sleep and my little sister being a story teller and she had this stuffed thing we called chick-a-dee. I have vague memories of him wearing a blue coat. He told wonderfully funny stories and though I don't really think my mother ever took chick-a-dee away from us I do remember her coming in and telling us to be quiet and go to sleep.
I hope my children do go to bed early tonight so that they can have some time to be creative and make up stories. I hope this is a family tradition that gets passed down to my grandchildren and to my great grandchildren.
:) Sweet story. All four of our kids share a room and they all go to bed at the same time. Our rules are: stay in your own bed, and keep the volume low enough so that any sleeping sibling stays asleep. I know they are building some great memories in there every night. :)
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