Raising a child is a never-ending learning process.

Our 8 year-old has had trouble falling asleep recently.  On Monday night, in particular, he just wouldn’t settle down.  He needed one of us to stay with him.  When I couldn’t coax him to relax and sleep, he whispered to me that it was time “to bring in the big guns” (i.e. POB (partner of blogger)).   In other words, he knew I did my best but I was just not up to the task.

Lesson No. 1:  My child needs to learn to lie or use euphemistic phrases.

It turned out that while we always ask about his day and the specific things that happened at camp, there was something he was holding back that was really troubling him and he wanted to tell us but was embarrassed.  Finally, at 10:30pm, he unburdened himself.   It was a childish (but not dangerous) thing and he had gotten a warning from a counselor.  We hugged and kissed him and re-assured him that all is ok and that we love him.  We also made sure he understands that what he did was inappropriate and that he can’t do it again.

Lesson No. 2:  We need to teach our child that any time earlier than 8:30pm is  a perfectly fine time to unburden his conscience.

Our son thinks by going to sleep he is missing out on something exciting.  As soon as we kiss our son good night, POB and I race to put on our pajamas and crawl into bed to read and unwind.  Notwithstanding the obvious visual evidence when he subsequently gets out of bed and stands in the doorway of our bedroom, my son seems still to believe that we are on the verge of laughing, dancing and having a party.  Or perhaps he thinks we secretly watch his Star Wars or train videos without him.   

Lesson No. 3:  If our son won’t go to sleep because he can’t accept that we are not about to have an awesome party without him, then we might as well have an awesome fun.  (Except he REALLY does need to asleep for THAT.)