Putting Kids to Bed Early

In today's For Better or For Worse, Michael Patterson gives up trying with his kids and decides to put them to bed early. The poor schmuck! I remember trying this technique on my kids. It never worked. The moment your back is turned they are stepping out of their room for something. Then you end up having to enforce it by guarding their door. That kind of defeats the purpose. The only time I ever remember it working was when my kids were cranky because they genuinely were tired, and did not have the wherewithal to put themselves to bed.

There is a certain age when that happens. Now, when the kids were very little, they would get cranky and shortly thereafter pass out wherever it was they were. My son would face plant in his food, or fall asleep on a toy, or fall asleep in very unusual sitting positions. It was amazing to see.

As they got older, my kids developed some kind of sense that they could only fall asleep in certain places and in certain kinds of positions. It was when they hit this stage, that the long and elaborate bedtime routines were established: Reading a book, and putting on pyjamas, and brushing of the teeth, the last drink of water, etc. My kids couldn’t go to bed without those rituals. I remember on one occasion deciding to see if the kids could put themselves to bed, by themselves if I let them stay up late enough. Eventually my son got so tired, he begged me to put him to bed.

Now my kids are older, and they are more than capable of putting themselves to bed when they are sleepy. When that started happening, it was like a certain relief not to have to be responsible for doing that, but also a sense of loss that my kids were no longer so young that they needed it.

As for poor Michael Patterson putting his kids to bed, apparently before Deanna has come home and presumably before the kids have had supper (although it is difficult to tell if Deanna comes home before or after supper for the kids). We have Friday and Saturday yet to go, and if Lynn Johnston wants to play this realistically, Mike’s attempt to put the kids to bed early will fail miserably. I am just hoping it will not fail to bring a laugh as the rest of this week has done. Honestly, the idea that a father is incompetent in dealing with his children can be turned into something funny. I just don’t know if Lynn Johnston knows what that funny stuff is.