The Night Watch
I'm sitting in our eldest daughter's bedroom, using her netbook while she pretends to be getting tired. It's heading towards 10pm. It's all my fault, and I expect to hear about it in the morning too. I let her watch an episode of “The X Files”.
I don't believe for a moment that she was scared – she had decided half an hour before bedtime that she wasn't going to be able to get to sleep. Two minutes after saying goodnight to her, she re-appeared on the stairs...
“I can't sleep”
“You only went up a minute ago!”
“But I can't sleep – because of that scary...”
“Oh don't talk such rubbish – you're smiling look!”
... at which point she accused me of trying to make her smile. Rather than fight a battle for the next hour with sending her to bed, I called her bluff. So here I am, sat in her bedroom, using her netbook while she listens to ABBA on the radio, and reads a book in the dark. I wish my eyes were that good. Hopefully reading in the dark will make her sleepy.
I can't help feeling that this is just a sign of her getting older. She's 12 years old now, and physically pretty far along. She's staying awake later that she used to without any signs of tiredness. The little girl who used to go to bed at 9 without complaint has long gone. I'm not entirely sure how we've got away with it for so long with her little sisters... or perhaps we haven't.
This evening I tucked them into bed, and sat on their bedroom floor reading a story. They were struggling to stay awake as I kissed them goodnight. Half an hour later my other half got in from a meeting at the school, and went to check on them. She discovered them both in the top bunk of the bed,inside the duvet cover, singing a song. As she told me the story, I couldn't help grinning, which of course got me into more trouble.
Miss Twelve has stopped reading now. She's laying on the bed, fidgeting around. I wonder how long she can hold out before sleep overtakes her?