Chickie goes to bed. The Engineer and I hang out downstairs, watching TV. At some point one of us glances upstairs and says with a sigh, "The bathroom light is on."
Either he or I gets up, and climbs the stairs. In the bathroom is Chickie, in her PJs, looking at books.
She's pretty smart. I mean, she's disobeying us, but how mad are we really gonna get, if she's gotten out of bed not to play, but to broaden her intellectual horizons?
We tuck her back in, telling her in a stern voice she needs to stay in bed. We tell her if she leaves the room again, we'll have to close the baby gate in her doorway. That usually works.
Usually.
Last night, after this entire process had played itself out, I realized there was once again a light on upstairs. The Engineer headed up there and came back a minute later with a smile. He informed me that he hadn't closed her gate, because Chickie had obeyed him. He'd told her not to leave her room, and she hadn't. She'd even stayed in bed--after she'd turned on the light in her room and grabbed a book. She'd managed to find a way to stay within the letter of the law while still doing exactly what she wanted to do.
I don't think I want her to keep "reading." She's a little too smart already.
12 comments:
Sounds like just the sort of thing I used to do :) I think, as disobedience goes, you could do a lot worse!
It's only a matter of time before she finds a flashlight. Much more covert.
Sounds like her Uncle Sean! After he was raised he told us he had always considered that it was up to us to make the rules and up to him to find the loopholes!
We use a nightlight in the bathroom, no lights on at night. Then it's much more boring. Plus, we don't have any books in the bathroom. But, Chickie is probably smart enough to haul her own over to the bathroom with her!
What a smart girl! And as a teacher, I am all for early readers, even if it's being done late at night. :) Well, not too late.......
Happy Easter Beth!
She is brilliant! and hilarious!! I love this but I am thinking you might have your hands full in the future with curfew!!
I wonder if there was a single one of us who didn't try reading in bed whenever we could. I used a torch like Call me Cate.
Oh man, that sounds exactly like my daughter!
I finally started sending her to be 15 minutes earlier just so she can read.
Smart girl!
My Nicholas (now 19) used to complain bitterly about his bedtime. We eventually came to two rules...
* you can stay up as late as you want in your bed as long as all you're doing is reading and you don't wake up grumpy in the morning
* Mommy's quitting time is 8:00 (it later changed to 10:00). Anything you remember after 8:00 has to wait until morning. This put an end to the, "I have a project done tomorrow..." drama.
So....a few weeks ago, I asked for his help in the evening. He looked at me and said, "Sorry...it's after 10:00"
Funny.
Hoppy Easter!
xoxo
That's so funny! I was a rebel reader myself as a kid, and I spent many nights reading by flashlight under the covers, after the lights were supposed to be out. I don't think I started that early, though. :-)
Loved the comments I got here. Sorry for no personalized responses--have been knee-deep in unfiled household bills & paperwork (now all filed) and taxes (now mostly done.) Fun stuff.
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