The Napping House

It's after 10 o'clock, and I am home with two kidlets sleeping upstairs. Yes, it's Tuesday, and school is in session. Yes, school starts at 8. Yes, this is not an error.

Everyone had trouble waking up this morning, kidlets most of all. There were tears and stomach aches and nausea. Mr. Sweetie and I questionned them closely, then sent them back to bed. Because I don't think they are really sick: I think they are just really tired.

I have a lot of sympathy for that kind of tiredness. I have a slow metabolism ("Oh, you think?" snarks the bathroom scale) and it takes me 20-40 minutes to fall asleep at night, and the same to wake up in the morning. In between, I need a minimum of 8 hours to feel human.

Mr. Sweetie, bless his untroubled conscience, is exactly the opposite. He can fall asleep like someone hit his "off" switch. I have personally observed him fall asleep WHILE HE WAS STILL TALKING! Plus, he seems to only need about 5 hours of sleep a night, routinely staying up to midnight, then waking up before his alarm goes off at 5:30. I don't think I've actually met 5:30 a.m., I only know it by reputation. But, because I feel like a failure for needing so much sleep, I try to match Mr. Sweetie's hours. And with insufficient sleep, I end up in some really bad places: nauseated, dizzy, overeating to stay awake, depressed. I also think some of my mediations have drowsy side effects. So many days I will see everyone off to their work or school, and then go back to bed to catch up on that sleep.

So, what do you do when you can't tell if your kids are sick? Are we pushing them when they shouldn't be pushed? Are we enabling them if we let them stay home? Do we strike a decent balance by sending them back to bed, and forbidding any tv or computer?

On edit: well, they both went back to bed and were asleep for the better part of 2 1/2 hours. Bunny woke up and came down looking her usual sunny and sparkly self: she needed more sleep! That was the right thing to do!

Pony woke up and stumbled down and didn't look at all like herself. So, Bunny went to school, and Pony stayed home. Guess we did okay in the Parenting Olympics today.