I am a few short months away from having 2 teenagers! What?! *sigh*
When we became parents we always from day one, had a great bedtime routine for the kids. For a good ten years or so it included reading night time books, singing little songs, big hugs and kisses then a tickle and a tuck in.
Slowly as the kids started growing up, pieces of the good night routine have fallen by the wayside… first the reading of the books… then the singing of the songs, then the tickling and somewhere along the line, I recently noticed, the bedtime hugging had ceased.
I guess if I look back and query as to why, it was about the time that the kids started staying up later than us. Ha. We used to have our kids down and out by 8 p.m. Then husband and I had a little wind down period ourselves, before turning in. As the kids grew taller their bed times grew later. Now we are at the point where many nights we are telling them goodnight and falling asleep while they are doing their thing…
When did the roles reverse?
Recently husband was out of town traveling and I was at lunch with friends. The subject of bedtime came up and through the conversation I realized that our bedtime rituals had changed so much, that I realized we weren’t hugging goodnight anymore! Oh Em Gee! Noooooooo!
Well, you can bet that that very night I announced to the clan, that things were changing…or changing back! I told them every night we are going to hug good night no matter who goes to bed first, us or them. Here’s where the crazy thing happened… they all said “ok.” Then went on about their business. There wasn’t a grunt. A smart comment, a joke..nothing…
It was at that moment that I realized, you are never too old for a hug (well, actually I kind of knew that anyways). So for the last 5 weeks, every night, no matter who goes to bed first, there is a big, sloppy hug! I’m talking about the kind where the kid gets up from his/her chair and gives us and we give them a big real hug… we recently added in a big sloppy kiss too!
I’m so glad that I’m open to reminders about loving my kids. Like I said, I’m not sure exactly when we started falling asleep without hugs, but from here on forward, we are back on track!
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