The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

My little ones take a nap after lunch on MOST days... If the 3 year old doesn't take one, she always falls asleep at the table. Unfortunately, she also tends to stay up later at night than the others. She also ends up in our bed usually around 2:00 in the morning. My mom fusses because I usually make everyone go to bed around 8:00. But if not, they are bears the next day... the 3 year old is usually up until 10 or 11, because I can't ever seem to be able to get her settled down and asleep before then... It can be very exhausting with her!

My youngest was like that too...we just made him lie down for the nap anyway. He could look at books while he was lying down but he couldn't get up until the hour was over. It required some discipline and training but it worked as well as it could with a kid like that. He is still odd in his sleeping habits at the age of 22...will sleep at the drop of a hat in all places but stays up all night otherwise and claims he is an insomniac. I've explained to him that you are only an insomniac if you get very little sleep at all..not if you sleep all day and stay up all night.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

My youngest was like that too...we just made him lie down for the nap anyway. He could look at books while he was lying down but he couldn't get up until the hour was over. It required some discipline and training but it worked as well as it could with a kid like that. He is still odd in his sleeping habits at the age of 22...will sleep at the drop of a hat in all places but stays up all night otherwise and claims he is an insomniac. I've explained to him that you are only an insomniac if you get very little sleep at all..not if you sleep all day and stay up all night.

Yeah ... young people and their nocturnal ways pretending to be insomniacs.

There are some bio-chemical reasons for this, and it is probably useful in situations where we need night patrol ... presuming the night patrol can be somewhat unreliable.

I used to be a night owl. Then had a sudden switch to being more of a morning person when I got "older." I like to watch the sun rise.

 

[sarahsunshine]

Yeah ... young people and their nocturnal ways pretending to be insomniacs.

There are some bio-chemical reasons for this, and it is probably useful in situations where we need night patrol ... presuming the night patrol can be somewhat unreliable.

I used to be a night owl. Then had a sudden switch to being more of a morning person when I got "older." I like to watch the sun rise.

I think taht it's not biochemical at all - it's called "lights". If there were no lights/electricity, there would be nothing else to do!

 

[lindz8504]

I think taht it's not biochemical at all - it's called "lights". If there were no lights/electricity, there would be nothing else to do!

Very true! Most people stay up watching TV or on the computer til late, and then can't get to sleep, and don't sleep well! I am guilty of that as well...

 

[Beekissed]

I've worked so many different shifts as a nurse, mostly nights and evenings, that my sleep schedule was nonexistent for many a long year. The last job I had was a day job that could at any time extend into an all nighter but was still preferable to shift work. I loved watching the sun rise..I hadn't really got to do that from my home for so many years, but could after getting that job...it was my special time before the kids awakened and the house was still quiet. A time for prayer and contemplation, for planning or just being grateful.

Now I don't have a schedule any longer, as I do not have to be at work, but I still love waking up early while the world is quiet and watching the pink and gold of the dawn steal across the land...it never gets old.

 

[Beekissed]

I think taht it's not biochemical at all - it's called "lights". If there were no lights/electricity, there would be nothing else to do!

Amen to that. I was never able to "stay up late" while I was growing up...I was sleeping in a two room log cabin wherein slept the rest of the family, my parents included. We had kerosene lamps and when Dad blew out the lamp, everyone went to sleep. Period. When Dad got up, everyone got up.

On Saturdays we were expected to get up before daylight and work for 2 hrs to earn our breakfast...then work the rest of the day until dark. Sunday was church, the other days I got up at 4 am so I could use the one mirror to get ready for school before the other kids, then would awaken them one at a time to do the same. Had to walk a mile out to the hard road to catch the bus by 6:45 and we had better not miss that bus. I was 10 when we moved there.

 

[sarahsunshine]

Amen to that. I was never able to "stay up late" while I was growing up...I was sleeping in a two room log cabin wherein slept the rest of the family, my parents included. We had kerosene lamps and when Dad blew out the lamp, everyone went to sleep. Period. When Dad got up, everyone got up.

On Saturdays we were expected to get up before daylight and work for 2 hrs to earn our breakfast. Sunday was church, the other days I got up at 4 am so I could use the one mirror to get ready for school before the other kids, then would awaken them one at a time to do the same. Had to walk a mile out to the hard road to catch the bus by 6:45 and we had better not miss that bus. I was 10 when we moved there.

Bee - was it uphill all the way to the bus stop and back? LOL!!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Bee - was it uphill all the way to the bus stop and back? LOL!!!!

Actually, it was. I lived in WV...anywhere you walk is uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill. There was a total of 3 steep uphills to the bus house...and the same number coming back.

You know, those old stories have a basis in fact that you city folks like to have fun with, but they were real all the same. And, yes, the snow was often knee deep or deeper...it's WV.

 

[sarahsunshine]

You crack me up! "We city folk!"

I hardly consider myself a city folk - just a displaced farmer/bush girl making do with a small plot for now!

I did grow up in the city, but walked 1.5 miles to the subway by myself starting at age 6... And got the squat out of there as soon as I could - and went to as much of a country university as I could (NH - 4000 person town), and lived out of town. Refused to wear anything but mocasins (or bare feet) for manmy a summer, and played at "avoid the cow and bull, but halter the calf" for many a year (or who can hold on to the electric fence the longest)!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Amen to that. I was never able to "stay up late" while I was growing up...I was sleeping in a two room log cabin wherein slept the rest of the family, my parents included. We had kerosene lamps and when Dad blew out the lamp, everyone went to sleep. Period. When Dad got up, everyone got up.

On Saturdays we were expected to get up before daylight and work for 2 hrs to earn our breakfast...then work the rest of the day until dark. Sunday was church, the other days I got up at 4 am so I could use the one mirror to get ready for school before the other kids, then would awaken them one at a time to do the same. Had to walk a mile out to the hard road to catch the bus by 6:45 and we had better not miss that bus. I was 10 when we moved there.

Wow! Such a cool story. To read.

I can't imagine it would have been easy to live that way, but I could probably question you for a lifetime to learn more and more about what it was like to just "be you."