There is an article that’s gone viral a few times over, talking about how one mother puts her kids to bed by 7 p.m. every night.
When I read it, I had trouble fathoming what such an evening would even look like for our family of six. We are generally just sitting down to eat dinner at that time. What on earth would I do with all of my time at night? Would my husband and I toast each other merrily over wine? Plan elaborate dream trips together? Watch endless hours of TV shows that did not involve talking dogs?
Even though I’m (mostly) comfortable with our family’s schedule, I have to admit that I have my moments of guilt. Are my kids getting enough sleep? I will wonder. Am I a horrible mother? Is my marriage suffering because we don’t have a lot of alone time together?
There are times that I definitely wish my husband and I had a little time to unwind and decompress in the evenings and there are often times I feel like I’m losing my mind because getting our four kids to bed takes so freaking long.
But when bedtime hits and we’re all together and happy and cozy and reading a story together, I feel pretty darn peaceful about our decision. Because honestly, what could be better than all of us being together?
I figure that there will be plenty of time someday when the kids will put themselves to bed and our evenings will be spent in eerie silence, staring at each other and remembering the days we used to spend straining our ears to hear which kid was trying to get out of bed again.
So until then, you’ll most likely find me on the floor of my kids’ room at 8:30 p.m., reading about Ma and Pa Ingalls — and being perfectly happy about it.
